


Wings of Fire: Thoughtful's Journey

by ARS2SWIM



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:02:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24030079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARS2SWIM/pseuds/ARS2SWIM
Summary: Takes place near the end of Legends: Darkstalker - Thoughtful is a dragon who strives to be the best NightWing he can be, in hopes of helping his struggling family into the royal palaces of the Night Kingdom. He dreams to one day be among the queen's most trusted advisors. However, when Darkstalker murders his father in a display of power, the kingdom is thrown into chaos. Darkstalker’s sister, Whiteout—a strange yet beautiful dragon—is devastated by the animus's actions. Under the deadly threat of Darkstalker's return, Queen Vigilance finds no other choice but to evacuate the kingdom, in hopes of finding a safe place to hide from the looming animus threat.With suspicion around the sister of the dragon that could've wiped out the entire NightWing tribe increasing, and more dangerous events occurring, Thoughtful is forced to choose who he is really loyal to.
Relationships: Thoughtful/Whiteout (Wings of Fire)
Comments: 47
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place near the end of Legends: Darkstalker, starting at the same time as Chapter 24 of that book, where Thoughtful meets Whiteout.

Thoughtful was quite new to the whole ‘attention’ thing.

Perhaps it was because he was also new to parties, or even socializing with other dragons. Perhaps  _ that  _ was because he never found wasting time with other dragons as important as his studies, or at least, his parents didn’t.

Thoughtful’s parents weren’t incredibly wealthy. In fact, their home was quite small - a simple brick shelter comprising of few rooms. His family always had enough to eat, but not much more than that. Sometimes his mother, Starcaller, an elegant dragon with green eyes and scales that were slightly lighter than a usual NightWing, would bring back an extra rabbit or squirrel, but that was about as lucky as they’d get. 

Studies were an enormous priority in his home. It was quite common for either of his parents to go on a tangent about how much different and better life would be as soon as they were accepted into the queen’s palace. As a result, Thoughtful spent most of his time each day either learning, studying, or sleeping. Sometimes he’d sneak in a bit of glassblowing here and there, but even that was a premium. If the glasses weren’t an indication, Thoughtful spent a  _ lot  _ of time reading.

When Thoughtful’s father, Nightseer, who was a lot darker in his scale color compared to his mate, and featured a much stockier build, decided to bring his son to one of Queen Vigilance’s parties for the first time, Thoughtful was absolutely a little confused at first. Surely he would rather let his son expand his knowledge on NightWing anatomy, or better yet, IceWing anatomy, and the most effective ways to deal with them? For the few times Thoughtful himself asked to join his father in a party, he always reassured him: “That’s time better spent growing that large brain of yours,” and patted him on the top of his head.

It didn’t quite make sense to him why the same thing didn’t apply to his parents, but it was probably better if he expended his energy on quizzing himself on the history of NightWing royalty than try to figure that one out.

However, when Thoughtful did get the chance to join his parents in Queen Vigilance’s party, he decided that it probably couldn’t hurt to take a bit of time off. Besides, maybe he’d even learn something while he was there!

“I don’t think I need to tell you this, but behave yourself,” instructed Nightseer before they had left to go to the party. “I want you back before sunrise. Look at the moons - you shouldn’t even see a speckle of orange in the sky by the time you return.”

When Thoughtful arrived, the party wasn’t anything like he quite expected. Candlelights surrounded the piazza, decorating the glossy grey-black stone with amber reflections. Several dragons were dancing around the Great Diamond, their grey scales swirling through the center of it like a whirlwind. A few leather couches were set up in a corner along with a couple of tables, and opposite from that were the feasting tables, which had lots, and lots, and  _ lots  _ of food.

Surrounding the Great Diamond were several glass sculptures. Among them being one of his. Apparently the queen had a glass jubilee to celebrate how long she’d been queen.

_ So that’s all I’m good for… _ he had thought with a chuckle.  _ Huh… _

And then he had realized he had no clue how to socialize. So by that point, miniature marble stacking scrolls in the couch corner were his best friend.

However, as fate would have it, a small group of dragons were hanging out away from the large clump of NightWings in the middle of the jubilee and contained some interesting looking dragons. There were two SeaWings, three NightWings, and a dragon Thoughtful had never seen before. Among the dragons were two familiar faces - one of which being a dragon he had a small exchange with the day before (was her name… Eavesdropper? No wait, it was Listener), and the other being a dragon he’d heard many things about: Darkstalker.

Every time Starcaller and Nightseer had discussed the hybrid, it was never in a positive light. Usually they said things like: “I swear to the Moons, that dragon is nothing but trouble. Make sure you stay away from him at all costs, Thoughtful. One day, he’ll probably get us all killed.  _ Thoughtful, promise to me you’ll stay away from him!” _

Thoughtful never quite understood why his parents were so paranoid of the dragon until that night. Yes, he had animus magic. Yes, every time Thoughtful heard Darkstalker say anything during passing periods at school, his large ego was often quite apparent. But he did use his magic for the good of the tribe. If Thoughtful had animus magic, he would probably cast similar spells to him. The IceWing barrier that surrounded their kingdom, while perhaps excessive, did its job well and saved many NightWing lives.

Darkstalker didn’t seem like anything to be too afraid of as long as you didn’t get on his bad side.

However, his sister, on the other talon, was nothing like Thoughtful could’ve imagined. In absolutely the best way possible.

With a grain of anxiety fluttering in his heart, he had greeted the group and asked them if anyone had wanted to join him in stacking marble scrolls. A few of them, including one of the SeaWings as well as that odd-looking dragon, were playing Scales-and-Squares, a board game Thoughtful played occasionally with his parents when he had freetime (which was rare). However, just then, he heard a female dragon (Thoughtful seriously couldn’t remember _her_ name - it was something like, Crystalvision) say with a slightly strained smile:  
“I’m Clearsight,” (oh, so THAT’S what her name was!) “Our SeaWing friend is Fathom and- and have you met Whiteout?”

Clearsight’s words had sounded a little forced, but that suspicion faded away when Thoughtful laid his eyes on a beautiful dark blue dragon with white wings. He knew exactly who she was talking about. Whiteout looked unique from any dragon he’d ever seen.

“WINNER!” Whiteout cried in victory, before rambling about her win in a strangely gorgeous way of speaking. When she finished, she saw Thoughtful and said: “Oh! Look how shiny you are.”

Wow. Thoughtful immediately regretted isolating himself from others for all of this time.

“Shiny?” snorted Listener. “Whiteout, what are you ever talking about?”

He felt a little irritated by this, but before he could give Listener a quelling look, Whiteout lurched forward and took one of Thoughtful’s talons. “ _ You _ made the  _ Cascade of Dreams _ ! Words and glass, spun flutes and verse. Waterfalls of language in fire-blown claws.”

“You noticed?” Thoughtful replied. So this is what  _ appreciation _ felt like. It was… it was really nice. “No one- you really saw the pieces of scroll inside the waves?”

“Tangerine. Probability. Spelunking.”

Honestly, Thoughtful was amazed. He felt as though he was a dehydrated dragon that had just been doused in fresh water. 

Whiteout continued: “I think you should teach me glassblowing, and I should teach you clarity.”

Listener had a loud, seemingly frustrated reaction to that, but Thoughtful ignored her and replied with a small smile: “How is the empress of scales at scroll towers?”

“Amazing. You’re going to die of awe.”

_ I think I already am,  _ Thoughtful realized with wide eyes.

As Whiteout shook out her white wings, Thoughtful felt a happiness he’d never known before. They padded towards the marble scroll tower Thoughtful had left alone with equally wide smiles. Thoughtful  _ heavily _ regretted isolating himself now.

But just when they were about to sit down together with the scroll tower, an unfamiliar NightWing, quick as lightning, blitzed through the crowd of dragons and stabbed Darkstalker with a spear to his chest, like a vicious arrow.

_ Oh… oh Moons… _

The other SeaWing that was in the group left Fathom’s side and tackled the dragon who’d killed Darkstalker, slashing at him relentlessly until he stopped, laying lifeless. Whiteout looked horrified. Clearsight looked perhaps even more scared than she was. Thoughtful saw a wave of hopelessness wash over Fathom’s expression, as if he was reliving a terrifying experience from years past.

However, it was Thoughtful’s turn to be scared when Darkstalker rose, unharmed.

Listener began yelling something at Darkstalker and Clearsight, and before long, she stormed away from them. If Thoughtful had to guess, Listener was just as confused as he was about Darkstalker’s miraculous health.

Thoughtful noticed that the dead dragon looked kind of familiar. Its mangled body resembled Quickdeath, a pretty reputable assassin.  _ To think someone would send Quickdeath after Darkstalker…  _ Thoughtful shuddered. This was crazy. 

After the group talked for a while, Darkstalker walked up to Thoughtful and asked: “Do either of you know him?”

Thoughtful hesitated, before confessing: “Yes, I do. By reputation, anyway. His name is Quickdeath, and he was- well, you can guess.”

Clearsight looked grim. “A killer for hire? Are you saying somebody  _ sent  _ him to kill Darkstalker?”

However, before Thoughtful could reply, Darkstalker put a wing around her and reassured her: “But he failed. No need to panic.”

_ Hmmm… _

After a bit more conversation, Darkstalker turned to Thoughtful and asked: “Thoughtful, can you stay here and watch the body until we send someone from the queen’s guard to investigate?”

“Sure,” he replied.

“I’ll stay with him,” added Whiteout. “Protect him from angry spirits.”

Thoughtful allowed himself a small smile. Even though he was beginning to believe that perhaps his parents were correct about Darkstalker, at the very least there was one dragon who seemed okay.

_ Then again, Darkstalker seemed okay before that happened,  _ weaseled a suspicious sector of his brain.  _ The same could happen with Whiteout. _

He felt his smile falter just a little.

As Darkstalker and the others flew away from the party, leaving Whiteout with him, he couldn’t help but feel spiders crawling down his spine. Everything had happened so fast, and it was an absolute rush of emotions - happiness, fear, relief, terror, and paranoia. He just hoped things would become a little more normal from here on out.

Thoughtful approached the couch Darkstalker and the others had been sitting on and collapsed on it, feeling drained already. Whiteout followed suit - she didn’t look quite as shaken as he felt, but perhaps she was just hiding that. He couldn’t know. Not unless he could read minds, or something.

Whether Whiteout was just as scared as he was or not, staring at Quickdeath’s corpse made his scales crawl.

“Wow,” Thoughtful said quietly after a small moment had passed. “I can’t believe Darkstalker wasn’t hurt. Did Quickdeath really just… miss?”  
“Hmm,” Whiteout said thoughtfully. “Perhaps his blanket is woven more tightly than all others. With magical threads and fabric.”

“Huh.” It never occurred to him until then that perhaps Darkstalker had used his magic to make his scales invulnerable. But now that he thought about it… it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he had. Darkstalker acted extremely calm after he almost died. Unnervingly calm.

“Yeah, maybe,” Thoughtful conceded, adjusting his glasses unconsciously. “Doesn’t that scare you, though? That he could do basically anything with no consequences to his physical wellbeing?”

Whiteout didn’t answer.

_ Oh, that’s right!  _ Wasn’t Darkstalker her brother? Which would mean… 

_ Wow. Just… just, wow. Suddenly I feel much more grateful he didn’t die. _

“I’m sorry we weren’t able to stack marble scrolls together,” Thoughtful said. “Though I can’t really say it’s a huge shame. You probably would’ve found it boring anyways.”

Whiteout shook her head. “No, your marbles are very glimmery. But it seems that they were destined to topple anyways.”

Thoughtful gave her a worried look. “Are you feeling okay? You seem… well, for a lack of a better term, colder. And uh, I’m not just saying that because… y’know, you’re part IceWing, and-”

He was cut off by Whiteout’s giggling. “That’s okay. I’m just feeling a little melted at the moment. My glacier doesn’t fare well in the hot summer heat.”

Thoughtful chuckled softly and said: “Alright, if you say so…” just as a squadron of NightWings landed before them. They upheaved Quickdeath’s corpse and started to hover. One of them said: “We heard about what happened.” More quietly, he added: “It’s a miracle that hybrid survived…”

As they took Quickdeath’s corpse away, Thoughtful could see the dark blue colors of the night sky begin to become more luminous. Before long, day would break. Thoughtful was already expected back home.

“I need to go now,” said Thoughtful with an apologetic expression. He pushed himself off the couch and shook out his wings, readying himself for flight, when Whiteout stood up and rested a talon on Thoughtful’s shoulder.

“Are you sure?” she said. “The ocean waves are still miniature. We can continue to walk along the beach.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can,” replied Thoughtful. “My parents are already expecting me back home. I doubt they’ll be happy with me staying out this late.” When he saw her expression falter, he added: “But don’t be sad! I bet we’ll see each other again someday. Maybe even someday soon!”

Whiteout slowly nodded. “Mm, okay. See you when the scrolls of time declare their judgement.”

This made Thoughtful smile. She was probably right. They probably would see each other again. Hopefully.

And then Whiteout was behind him as he lifted up into the sky, which was slowly turning amber. The once piercing shine of the stars was beginning to muffle, as if to indicate just how late he really was. Taking a deep breath, he pushed through the air in the direction of his home, as if he was just coming back from school.

_ I just hope all of this craziness ends soon… _

Thoughtful’s parents were less than elated to see him return home as late as he did.

“Where on Pyrrhia have you been?!” Starcaller exclaimed as Thoughtful pushed open the creaky wooden door of their small home. She darted in front of him and grabbed one of his talons, examining his palm. “Are you hurt? Did you get in a fight?  _ Why did you take so long?!” _

“Mom,” Thoughtful began with worried eyes as his mother started to visibly shake. “I’m okay. I wasn’t hurt. I just… kinda got wrapped up in a conversation with some new dragons. I’m sorry for not coming sooner,” he added quickly. “I wasn’t watching the moons and forgot to look for the sun.”

Starcaller took a deep, exasperated breath, paused for a  _ really  _ long, awkward moment, and conceded: “...It’s okay. I know you haven’t really talked with other dragons very much. I guess I should’ve expected you to take your time.” She chuckled and glanced at Nightseer, who was sitting at a dining table expectantly. “I know I sure did when I was your age.”

Thoughtful pictured an elegant shape of dark blue and white, and gulped. He hoped this wasn’t a premonition.

After Starcaller blinked away her dreamy expression, she let go of Thoughtful’s palm and motioned for him to follow. 

“Oh, Mom-” said Thoughtful. “I, um, actually didn’t end up eating at the party.”

Starcaller looked slightly annoyed, but shook her head and said: “Alright, that’s fine. We still have a couple rabbits left from yesterday.”

The kitchen, like most sections of the home of Thoughtful’s family, was small. There was an iron board installed in an average-sized kitchen island and a small pantry that was more like a slightly larger cabinent than anything else. There was also a bar, but as one might’ve guessed, it was also quite humbly short. However, the orangish glow of the candles scattered across their home was comfortingly familiar, and as Thoughtful settled himself on one of the stools in front of the bar and breathed in the familiar smell of their little house, he couldn’t help but feel a little refreshed after the unpredictable party.

Starcaller selected a rabbit she’d left on the island and breathed some steady flames onto it. Before long, the rabbit caught fire. She ceased her lighting of the fish and waited a few seconds before taking a deep breath and blowing the flames out. What resulted was a slightly charred but quite appetizing rabbit. After grabbing a plate from a cabinet inside the island and dropping the fish on it, she took the plate over to the dining table and set it down. It made a little ‘cla-clink’ sound as it touched the table.

“Come sit with us,” said Starcaller, who took out a wooden chair for Thoughtful and sat in the one next to it. Nightseer shifted in the chair he was sitting in and nodded, adding: “I’d like to hear about the type of dragons our son met at the party.”

“It was really nothing,” Thoughtful assured them as he slid into his seat. “There were a couple of dragons playing scales-and-squares. It looked fun and hey, I hadn’t played before, so I thought ‘might as well’.”

Lying to his parents wasn’t exactly something Thoughtful enjoyed, but he preferred it to explaining how a powerful super-dragon had escaped imminent death with seemingly no effort. They either would’ve laughed and passed it off as a joke, or they would’ve put even  _ more  _ effort into keeping Thoughtful close to his scrolls and away from his peers.

“Hmm,” said Nightseer. “Guess it was a really intense match, to cause you to stay out that late…?”

“Well, yes,” Thoughtful started. “I mean, um, no. You see-” And then he realized he was awful at lying because he’d never tried it before, and quickly took a bite out of his rabbit to give him time to think. A headache began to well up near his temples, pulsing with almost as much intensity than the beautiful colors of Whiteout’s scales.

After wiping his mouth, Thoughtful continued: “So I did end up getting stuck in a conversation with one of the dragons there. He looked like, um…” He adjusted his spectacles. “He kind of looked like Dad, kind of.”

“And you were talking with him about…?”

“And I was talking with him about the current state of the IceWing war.”  _ Though I would legitimately like to think about that more. Darkstalker… honestly kind of scares me. The way he survived Quickdeath was unbelievable. He must have been using magic... _

Neither Starcaller nor Nightseer looked particularly convinced, but the latter simply shrugged his shoulders and said: “Alright, whatever. Speaking of the war, I bet you’ll make great use to the queen once you get out of school. What’s the word on your studies as of now?”

Starcaller, Nightseer, and Thoughtful were all born without any prophetic powers, which would’ve been especially useful to Queen Vigilance (though Thoughtful recently heard from somewhere that her current star seer, Allknowing, was being replaced), and also lacked mind reading abilities. Because of this, Thoughtful’s parents had placed their bets on their son’s intellect to one day propel him up the queen’s ranks, taking his parents with him, and one day help him become a trusted advisor to Vigilance.

Gaining more wealth was a benefit from this, but more than anything, Thoughtful’s parents wanted - no -  _ expected  _ him to serve his tribe in the best way possible. And who wouldn’t with a tribe as respected and powerful as the NightWings? 

“Honestly, keeping up has been kind of difficult,” admitted Thoughtful. “I should’ve gotten through history from the last five hundred years by this point, but I’m only around halfway through. Also math has been a little torturous lately. But… I suppose that’s just how things are sometimes.” His eyes flicked back and forth between his father’s eyes and the reflectionless surface of the table. “Remember when this happened back when I was four?”

Nightseer thought for a short moment before conceding: “Yes, I do remember. You got yourself back on track like a champ.” Nodding, he continued: “I think we certainly raised you right. We’ll be out of this dumpy home in no time.”

Thoughtful’s heart filled with gratitude and pride at his father’s praise. Images of Thoughtful delivering war-ending strategies to his queen slid through his mind. Vigilance’s eyes shone with admiration for this powerless, yet incredibly smart and faithful NightWing. Dragons rushing through the palace would see him and smile, thinking:  _ It’s Thoughtful! _ instead of rushing through school thinking:  _ Oh, it’s just Thoughtful… _

Invigorated, Thoughtful promised: “Don’t worry, Dad! I’ll make sure I learn all of the things I need to before you can say ‘The IceWings have finally conceded defeat!’. When I get out of school, I’ll be like a completely different dragon.”

“I trust you, Thoughtful,” said Nightseer. His eyes flicked to his mate, who nodded in agreement, adding: “Make sure you’re paying as much attention as you can to your math teacher tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Mom,” said Thoughtful, before he got up from the table and began padding towards the small room he slept in.

“Um, son!” called Nightseer as Thoughtful was leaving. “You forgot about your rabbit! You only took like, two bites.”

_ Why can’t I get one stupid but kind of cute dragon out of my head long enough to finish my meal?! _

“Oh, sorry!”

Thoughtful’s bedroom, if you could even call it that, was a bit of a mess. All he had was a small bed and a nightstand with a few drawers embedded, as well as countless scrolls scattered across the floor. At this time of the day, it felt like a small little brick-and-wooden cube, though it was obviously a bit bigger. But the mess didn’t help make him feel any less claustrophobic.

However, it was nothing compared to the absolute cluster that was Thoughtful’s head as he laid on his bed shifting occasionally, unable to sleep.

And standing in the middle of the storm was an elegant hybrid of navy blue scales.

_ I can’t believe there are dragons like her out there,  _ he thought.  _ Will I ever get to talk to her again? Or will I have to focus exclusively on my academics? I can’t ignore them… not ever. Not if it means sacrificing any part of my queen’s eventual appraisal of my knowledge and strategies and capability for producing quality advice… _

But as the weird white wings and her odd but pleasant way of speaking drifted through his mind, he couldn’t help but hope that maybe, just one day at school, like maybe… two days a week, he could spend like… thirty seconds talking to her. _Yes, that sounds okay._ _That could be okay._

_ But if it isn’t, and my studies suffer even more… no way. It would probably be better not to see her at all. _

Memories of the cool touch of Whiteout’s scales shaking Thoughtful’s heart brought thunder to his thoughts once again, as brief as lightning. He winced, as if to try and eject the flash from his consciousness.

_...No. I can’t be like them. I can’t waste my time or, Moons forbid, completely forget about my education. I’m… I’m not thinking clearly. _

_ Maybe I just need sleep. _

_ Maybe once I go ahead and finish up with that history stuff, all of this will have been nothing but a simple confusion that ultimately amounts to nothing. _

Thoughtful closed his eyes… and didn’t sleep for another hour.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Thoughtful’s starry wings gleamed with the red rays of the sun as he soared above the kingdom. A couple of NightWings could still be seen cleaning up from the party, and a scales-and-squares board was still left in a corner(though Quickstrike’s body had been cleaned down to the last bloodstain).

The sun was almost hidden from his view when he landed on the Great Diamond’s gray-black stones. Usually he walked the rest of the way to school, using the time he would’ve saved flying to review everything and ensure he wasn’t missing anything.

However, even if there wasn’t a gigantic cluster of NightWings gathered around the recently set-up stage, he didn’t think it would’ve been easy to focus that night. Whiteout was still on his mind even after yesterday, and no matter how hard he tried to remove her, she still lingered. 

But the crowd didn’t help matters.

The two full moons illuminated five dragons on the stage: three of dark scales, one of green, and one of pale, IceWing white.

Thoughtful squinted. The piercing, knowing black eyes of one of the shapes looked familiar. And so did the green dragon, and one of the NightWings looked almost blueish-

_ Those are the dragons from the party last night! _

_ But… who’s the IceWing? _

Upon further inspection, none of the dragons looked particularly happy. The IceWing looked furious, with an almost suffocated expression, and Clearsight, Fathom, and Whiteout most of all looked concerned.

The moonlight cast a glassy glow upon their worried eyes, allowing Thoughtful to see exactly what they were staring at: Whiteout’s brother. Who, by contrast, looked quite delighted.

Thoughtful wanted to let out a resigned: “Oh, boy…”, but he felt that now was not the time. 

With his talons scraping up to the edge of the stage along with a malevolent stare, Darkstalker announced with the IceWing at his side: “My friends, you’re about to see something no dragons have ever seen before. Gather your families; everyone come watch! This is the most important day of your lives!”

Thoughtful frowned. The longer he was around the pompous hybrid, the more icy claws he felt trailing along his spine.

Clearsight told Fathom something before the green SeaWing turned and flew away, and then walked up to Darkstalker. Leaning into his side, they began conversing. It was difficult to hear them from where Thoughtful was standing, so he decided to focus on the IceWing. Oddly enough, he looked unnaturally still, almost as if he was being restrained by some invisible force, judging by his almost tortured expression.

Once the two had finished talking, Clearsight slipped away from Darkstalker (she looked as if she had snatched something, though Thoughtful couldn’t be sure), and Darkstalker raised his voice to speak to the crowd again.

“Thank you for coming!” he called. “What a beautiful night! A perfect night to punish a traitor!” He beckoned to the IceWing, and the dragons around him gasped and murmured significantly.  _ That’s weird… isn’t he just an ordinary enemy IceWing? _

However, just as Thoughtful looked closer at the white dragon, Darkstalker continued: “First, let’s consider the evidence. Arctic, tell our listeners what you were about to do before I stopped you.”

_ Arctic. _

_ Darkstalker’s animus father. _

_ The only IceWing to have a place in the Night Kingdom.  _

_ The only IceWing with the kind of power that could end the war. _

_ And the only other dragon with the kind of power that could stop Darkstalker. _

_...I don’t like where this is going. _

“I was going HOME!” Arctic violently roared. His suffocated expression had morphed into animated rage. “I’m not a traitor!”

“Tell the truth,” commanded Darkstalker.

Lashing his tail, Arctic replied with surprising obedience: “I was taking my daughter to Queen Diamond. I was going to offer her talons in marriage to whomever Diamond chose, so she could hatch some heirs for the throne who might have animus blood. I was also going to offer the IceWings a detailed map of the Night Kingdom and a way to get inside to destroy you all, in exchange for Foeslayer’s life.”

A small part of Thoughtful wondered:  _ Foeslayer… is that Darkstalker’s mother? What happened to her? _

...while another part of him exclaimed:  _ Three Moons! Wh-Whiteout could’ve been-  _ The rest of his thought couldn’t be completed in words, but rather, a cold thumping of his heart.

Darkstalker shook his head with a disdainful look on his face. “Don’t you see? He admits it all! He would’ve wiped out our entire tribe without a shred of remorse.” His gaze shifted into a glare. “He is the worst dragon who has ever lived, and he deserves to die. Don’t you agree?”

This was all happening too fast. Thoughtful had heard a lot about Arctic’s importance to the NightWing kingdom. The only IceWing in the entire kingdom, armed with the kind of power that could do anything. He should’ve seen this betrayal coming.

So why did part of him still feel petrified, not appalled by Arctic, but terrified by Darkstalker? Maybe it was the concern in Clearsight’s eyes, or the almost violent fear in Whiteout’s. As if she knew what was about to happen.

Raising his chin, Darkstalker commanded Arctic: “Kneel,” and he obeyed.

“Admit that I am the greatest animus of all time” 

“You are the greatest animus of all time,” choked Arctic.

_ Don’t tell me he… oh Moons… _

Thoughtful could only imagine how upsetting this was going to be for Whiteout.

“Tell them there is no more powerful dragon than me,” Darkstalker continued, spreading his wings towards the crowd of NightWings.

“There is no more powerful dragon than you.”

“Now say you wish you had been a better father.”

After pausing, and then laughing in a way that almost unnerved Thoughtful, he spoke: “I  _ do  _ wish I had been a better father… if I were, I would’ve strangled you the moment you hatched!”

Darkstalker said something else that Thoughtful couldn’t hear, and after a moment of hesitation, Arctic’s talons reached inside his mouth and sheared off his tongue, tearing viscously.

That was it. Things couldn’t get any better from here.

Whiteout needed help.

“Whiteout! Whiteout!” yelled Thoughtful, pushing his way through the waves of black and gray scales. His heart pounded against his chest with a combination of urgency and anxiety as his claws hastily scraped against the cold stone floor. It was difficult to see Whiteout’s frozen shape, for she had stepped near the back of the stage. No dragon would take well to what was happening if they were in Whiteout’s talons. Taking into account how shaken up she seemed yesterday after the attempted assassination of her brother… this did not bode well.

Thoughtful ran into a large clump of NightWings. He tried to look above them, in order to find some sort of path forward, and caught sight of what was possibly more terrifying than anything in his life.

It was Arctic. Killing himself.

Arctic’s entranced talons were almost methodically reaching inside his serrated belly, pulling out moist, bloody organ after organ. They smacked against the stage floor with a wet  _ slap  _ as Arctic threw them. Blue blood had puddled around him and was slowly spreading across the stage floor, like a group of slithering dragonbite vipers. His eyes were cold, dead, and empty, their once stark black now reduced to a muddied dark gray. And his mouth… permanently contorted into a scream of pure pain, fear, and suffering.

“WHITEOUT!” Thoughtful blitzed into the air with all of his strength. Throwing all caution to the wind, he swooped onto the stage, landing rather ungracefully with his talons leaving deep gashes into the wood of the stage. They stung a little from the impact, but he guessed it was nothing compared to what Whiteout was feeling.

Whiteout was sitting on the floor of the stage with her talons pressed against her eyes, sobbing. She looked so much more broken compared to the night before. Thoughtful hoped she had hidden her vision before Arctic began cutting himself open.

“Whiteout, I’m here,” Thoughtful said, his voice wavering.  _ Please don’t cry right now, Thoughtful…  _ he prayed. But it was difficult not to. Few things were more tear-jerking than seeing a dragon like her crumpled against a wall, destroyed by the toxicity of the outside world.

Thoughtful bent down and gently slid his wings around Whiteout’s slender body, letting her cool scales graze the membrane of his wings. Unexpectedly, she immediately embraced him with her arms and sobbed even harder into his shoulder.

Amidst all of the chaos and terror around him, it felt surprisingly nice to hold her close to him. Like a rush of warm water washing away the pain of the dragon in his wings.

Thoughtful could hear the sound of wingbeats in the distance. He dared to shift his head a little so he could look behind him. Darkstalker was missing, and so was Clearsight.

His eyes flicked to the dragons gathered around the stage. He couldn’t make out any of their conversations from where he was, but he saw some dragons pointing towards Whiteout with skeptic eyes.

He shook his head slightly and rested his head back on Whiteout’s shoulder.

Thoughtful felt like he had been sitting with Whiteout inside the warm embrace of his wings for an eternity, but when he glanced up at the sky, the moons had only shifted slightly higher into the sky. The noise had died down considerably, and a couple of NightWing officers were cleaning up Arctic’s corpse.

It was just then that he noticed Listener flying through the air at a high speed, with two adult dragons trailing behind her. It seemed rather odd, but he ignored it. He needed to talk to Whiteout.

“Whiteout,” he breathed, trying not to disrupt the relative quiet. “Are you okay?”

_ Well, that’s a stupid question to ask,  _ part of him remarked.  _ Of course she isn’t. _

But still, it felt only right to ask.

However, the answer he received wasn’t quite what he expected. “No, not really…” she answered. “Darkstalker still had a little bit of blue left in him. I could’ve exploited it and helped save the future if I hadn’t done… done  _ nothing… _ ”

“Whiteout, it really isn’t your fault. Your brother still might’ve…” He cast a sideways glance towards the NightWings cleaning near the center of the stage, feeling afraid to say Darkstalker’s deed out loud. “He still might’ve done that even if you did try to stop it.”

“But he might’ve also surrendered to the ocean!” Whiteout cried, shuddering. “But he didn’t because I didn’t even try!”

Thoughtful shook his head. “Please don’t blame yourself for-” he started, before hearing several wingbeats up high. He gazed back up at the starry sky and found Listener again, this time with double the amount of dragons following her.

Leaving Whiteout on her own was something Thoughtful seriously didn’t wish to do, but by this point, he felt more uneasy about leaving a dragon associated with Darkstalker off to do whatever weird thing they wanted. So far, only disasters seemed to follow that group of dragons.

Breathing regretfully, he folded his wings in and told Whiteout: “I need to go see what Listener’s doing. I don’t trust her very much.”

“Okay,” Whiteout said softly.

He took one of Whiteout’s talons and squeezed it, before turning around and lifting off into the moon-dazzled night sky.

When he caught up with Listener, she was nearing the border of the Night Kingdom. Deserts of cold, blue-gray sand could be seen beyond it. If one were to continue flying in this interval, Thoughtful recalled, they would eventually reach the mountainous Sky Kingdom.  _ This seems… suspicious. _

“Listener!” called Thoughtful. “What’re you doing here?”

Listener turned around, signaling with her wing for the other dragons to stay put. “What’re  _ you _ doing here, is what I’d like to know.”

“Are you trying to escape?” he immediately asked. “If so, why? Surely the queen hasn’t authorized something like this?”

Listener growled softly. “Clearsight told me that we need to leave. Her boyfriend is insane and is probably going to kill us all. So naturally… yeah.”

Thoughtful didn’t trust this information. First of all, Listener could be lying. Second of all, even if  _ she  _ was telling the truth, how trustworthy was Clearsight? Sure, she was Queen Vigilance’s most trusted seer if he remembered correctly, but if she really had a relationship with… with  _ Darkstalker _ … he didn’t feel comfortable with this.

Oh, and also,  
“Why didn’t you tell the rest of the tribe?” pressed Thoughtful. “Surely if Darkstalker is that imminent of a threat, the entire tribe should know.”

“Alright, sure, but who’s gonna believe me?”

“The dragons who just witnessed him disembowel his father with magic! And frankly that’s an awful reason to warn no one but these four!” He indicated the dragons ahead of Listener.

“Arctic was a traitor!”

“You don’t know that. He could’ve been lying.” Thoughtful rubbed his temples in exhaustion. “In any case, this is going nowhere. We should ask the queen if you really are concerned.”

Listener hesitated, before conceding: “Alright,  _ fine _ . But if she doesn’t agree, I’ll be gone before you know it.”

“...and that’s why I think we should move the tribe,” finished Listener. The queen’s throne room had a glossy black marble floor with walls of a smooth, gray stone. The throne itself was almost overflowing with embedded gems and treasure. The room itself was quite majestic, if Thoughtful did say so himself. 

Vigilance had taken her time to see them - by the time he and Listener were finally able to meet with her, the moons were already past the middle of the sky. Allknowing, Queen Vigilance’s best seer prior to Clearsight’s appointment, was perched right beside her. 

“Hm…” Queen Vigilance let out slowly. “You may be onto something, Listener.”

“W-” Thoughtful began, before cutting himself off before the queen could notice.  _ Wait, seriously?!  _ he finished in his head.

“Allknowing,” Vigilance said. “What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you have a prophecy to share with us?”

Allknowing nodded, paused, and replied:

“Flooded by blue, IceWing blood,

Overshadowed by a dark king’s crown,

The NightWing tribe must flee for good,

Or else they and their kingdom will drown”

The NightWing queen nodded her approval. “Your prophecies are becoming considerably clearer. Perhaps I never should’ve replaced you with Clearsight in the first place.”

Allknowing replied with a smug smile.

“Wait, Your Majesty,” Thoughtful interjected. “What we just witnessed may have been disturbing, but how are we to know for sure that Darkstalker plans to destroy our tribe? Why would he even want that?”

“Are you questioning my most trusted seer?” Vigilance hissed.

“I’m not!! I just… really don’t want our tribe to do something it’ll regret.”

“And you think we won’t regret letting Darkstalker harm our tribe?” Vigilance scoffed.

Thoughtful conceded: “Y-You’re right, Your Majesty. I apologize.”

He had always dreamed of his glorious future. It consisted of carrying out powerful duties within the shining, beautiful walls of the place he spent his life in. Vigilance was so proud of him in these dreams that she allowed his family a place in her palace, like they always wanted. The NightWing kingdom was wonderful and strong, and one incident shouldn’t so much as shake it!

But just like that, Thoughtful’s future wavering, Queen Vigilance said: “Then, it’s settled. The NightWing tribe will flee, effective immediately.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer wait! I had gone on vacation and when I came back, it took me a while to get back into the writing mindset. But now I'm back, and hopefully here to stay till I finish up this fanfic!

After Queen Vigilance had made the announcement to the whole kingdom about the evacuation, Thoughtful had only just reached his parents. Nightseer could hardly believe his ears as the queen broke the news, while Starcaller nearly fainted.

“Due to the unpredictability of the threat at hand, that being Darkstalker,” Vigilance started, addressing the crowd gathered around the Great Diamond with a grim expression “We will leave the Night Kingdom once day breaks. 

Not many of the other NightWings took well to this announcement. A few even yelled out in protest, angered by the tiny amount of time they had to prepare. In response, Vigilance said: “I assure you all that I’m doing this in the best interests of you. Darkstalker could return at any moment. Delaying in our evacuation could be the death of us.”

The crowd’s panic seemed to ebb as Vigilance told them this. Thoughtful was still rather shocked by… well, everything, but he and the rest of the tribe were probably going to be alright. As long as they followed the queen, there’d be no issues. She knew what she was doing.

Thoughtful and his family were collectively able to find about three day’s worth of food for each of them by the time day broke. As Thoughtful exited his home, the sun’s warm orange rays gleamed through the door, forcing him to squint. 

It was very strange seeing the sun where the moons would be when he usually woke up, but it illuminated the dark stones of the Night Kingdom in a new, fascinating way. The palaces, with their diamond-shaped windows and elaborate carvings, looked even more beautiful in daylight. It hurt more now, knowing that he’d have to leave these beautiful sights behind for good.

Stretching out his wings, he turned around to see his parents following - his father was carrying their food in a bag Thoughtful recognized as one of their carpets. They still looked really shaken up, but they seemed well enough to begin the evacuation. 

“I guess it’s time, then,” said Thoughtful, staring back towards the horizon.

He heard his father walk up next to him. “Thoughtful, try not to worry too much about… all of this,” Nightseer said, resting a talon on his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll still have a chance to live among the queen’s best officers and help us off the ground that way.”

“Maybe… but it really won’t be the same,” he replied, rubbing his temples. “I’m gonna miss this place.”

“Hmm…” Nightseer glanced at the magnificent palaces and buildings before them. “Well, wherever we’re going, I’m sure it’ll be just as great, if not better than here. The queen is brilliant.”

Thoughtful nodded. Vigilance  _ had _ been queen for forty years. There wasn’t much of a reason  _ not  _ to believe in her.

“Okay, I’m ready,” he said. “Let’s fly.”

They soared into the stream of other NightWings in the air, like a stream of black water slashing through the deep tangerine sky. As they flew further and further away from the kingdom, more and more buildings fell away from Thoughtful’s field of view, until he had reached the dips and dunes of the desert ahead.

It seemed like there was endless sand ahead. The barren landscape sprawled in front of him like an orange sea, with some cacti here and there. It made Thoughtful anxious about just how much time he’d have to spend flying. Would he be lucky enough to reach the tribe’s destination in a single day? Or would it take as long as a week? He had rarely ventured outside of the Night Kingdom in the past, so once the weight of all of this sunk in, it was almost as breathtaking as the apparent size of the Sand Kingdom.

He pushed through the air with heavy flaps of his wings in order to gain speed. The black dragons around him blurred past like rivers of tar, until he yielded after reaching the front of the tribe, where the queen was. It comforted him to be so close to the dragon he dreamed of advising. The way she soared through the air emanated majesty and power. Flying this close to her gave him hope that perhaps, despite leaving the Night Kingdom for good, he’d still have a chance.

A bit of blue edged its way through his peripheral vision, and he turned to find Whiteout, flying downcast a couple wing-lengths across from him. Familiar grains of pity fell through his heart, and he maneuvered his way next to her, hoping to check up on the poor hybrid.

“Hi…” Thoughtful began rather awkwardly. “Er, um… I’m sorry about your father.”

Whiteout’s elegant blue snout turned towards him, her pale blue eyes shining against the morning sun. “Don’t be,” she softly told him, her eyes faltering. “I had the wings, but I didn’t use them…”

“I already told you - this wasn’t your fault,” he gently but firmly replied. “Your brother was extremely powerful… and frankly, an extreme danger to our tribe. If I was in your position, I probably would’ve been scared to death as we-” He cut himself off when he saw her expression contort into one of despair, and she flew away from him, putting a couple of wing-lengths of distance between them.

Thoughtful felt baffled. What did he say to upset her? Was it even him that upset her?

Perhaps it was because of what he said about her brother… but surely, anyone would recognize how much of a threat Darkstalker was?  _ Especially  _ her, since the animus had killed her father.

_ Perhaps I can’t understand her quite as well as I thought. _

After soaring through the sun-bathed sky in silence for a while, which had now shifted to a mix of azure and clementine, a different dragon sidled up next to him. His eyes flicked to his left, and he found Listener had caught up with him. He then realized that she had teardrop scales beside her eyes, marking her status as a mindreader. It was beyond him why he hadn’t noticed that before - perhaps due to how fast everything had been moving back in the Night Kingdom.

“So… what’s your deal with Whiteout?” said Listener.

“What? What do you mean?”

“You know, you’ve seemed  _ quite  _ close to her ever since you two met…” She nudged Thoughtful’s wing, which made him wrinkle his snout.

“I seriously don’t know what you’re trying to imply,” he replied, feeling pretty annoyed. “She just lost her father and was separated from her brother. Why wouldn’t I want to give her some support?”

“I mean, I get that, but like… I dunno. You just seem… _unusually_ close.”  
“Can we please talk about something else?”

Listener actually obeyed, keeping quiet for a few moments as she nodded.  _ Huh… she doesn’t seem like the kind of dragon to just… stop like that. _ She then glared at him, and Thoughtful, remembering her teardrop scales, decided he earned that glare.

“Er… I guess we’ll talk about…” He took a couple seconds to rack his brain for topics, then asked: “Where do you think we’re going?”

“I have no clue,” she replied. She cued him to slow down, and he did, though not without casting a worried glance towards Whiteout. Once Listener and Thoughtful had put a decent amount of distance between them and the queen, she said: “As far as I know, Queen Vigilance has been totally silent in regards to where we’re going. I think we’re moving in a more southern direction than where I planned to go with my family earlier-”

“Oh, so those were who those dragons were?” asked Thoughtful.

Looking a bit annoyed for interrupting him, Listener answered: “Yes, and Clearsight’s family. Let. Me. Finish.” Sighing in irritation, she continued: “We seem to be moving in a more southern direction than where I planned to fly earlier, which was a direction that would’ve led to the mountains.”

Thoughtful regarded her with a still confused expression. “So… what exactly does that mean?”

“I don’t know. For all I know, Queen Vigilance could be taking us to the Sea Kingdom for whatever reason.” She paused, staring at the ground thoughtfully, then whispered: “Do you think she knows what she’s doing?”

“What?” It was difficult to hear Listener over the mass of wingbeats surrounding him.

“I said, are you sure Queen Vigilance knows what she’s doing?”

That shouldn’t have even been a question. “Of course I am!” Thoughtful replied, surprised by Listener’s lack of faith in the queen. “Aren’t you?”

The bright, beating sun illuminated a conflicted look in her eyes. “I mean, yeah, I guess, but like…” She sighed, as if she was frustrated by her own words. Thoughtful certainly would be in her shoes - what she was saying sounded like a  _ bit  _ of a red flag. It was a good thing they’d flown out of Queen Vigilance’s earshot.

Listener shot him a quelling look - she was likely hearing his thoughts, before continuing: “Thoughtful, this is an unprecedented event. From the beginning of recorded history all the way up to now, our tribe has always lived back there.” She beckoned to the kingdom behind them, which had now disappeared from their line of sight. “No queen of ours has ever attempted this.”

“I’m aware, but I’m also confident in our queen. She’s got this, I know it. Plus, she has Allknowing, her most trusted seer. Even though she can only have prophecies every once in a while, they’re still very valuable.”

Listener gave him a weary smile. “I wish I had your amount of faith. It’s a really admirable quality.”

“Oh. Er… thank you?” Thoughtful wasn’t quite sure exactly how to respond to that.

“Don’t worry, thank you works well enough!” she replied cheerfully.

_ Huh… did she read my mind again? _

“I’m always listening,” she supplied.

“Hm” Thoughtful looked away from her, studying the bright sand below them as if to clear his thoughts. However, he couldn’t get the word:  _ creepy… _ out fast enough for Listener to offer him an “Oh, uh, sorry. Heh.”

His eyes flicking back to her, he replied: “It’s fine, just…” He finished the rest in his mind.  _...kind of bothers me… _

After flashing him an apologetic look, Listener and Thoughtful continued to fly in silence, the sound of their wingbeats mixing in with the sea of noise surrounding them. 

Thoughtful felt an urge to fly back up to Whiteout, in hopes of bringing her out of the slump she was in after Arctic’s death, but… he didn’t really know if his words would have any effect. It would probably be better to just wait till the tribe stopped to rest. 

However, throughout the flight, he couldn’t help but reminisce over the time he spent chatting with her during the jubilee. Her silliness, her smile, her positive energy that seemed to just constantly overflow… it made him feel that extra bit more upset with Darkstalker for causing his sister to just… lose it.

It also made him wonder what things would’ve been like if none of the madness from the night prior occurred. What would Whiteout say? Perhaps, they’d be meeting up for school and talk about the party.

_Whiteout would say something like:_ _Oh, boy… what a… spelunking day yesterday was!_

_ Er. Wow. I’m really not good at this. _

_ Hm. _

An eternity seemed to pass until Thoughtful could see something other than sand up ahead. The sun had already sunk beneath the horizon behind the tribe, and the cold night’s air had already begun to cascade around the flying dragons.

“Listener, look!” he said, pointing to a grassy landscape ahead. “We might almost be done flying for now!” He let a smile of relief form across his face, for his wings were aching harder than they had in his life. It was all he could ask for to get a break.

At first, however, he heard no reply from Listener. He turned his head and found her glaring at him. “Yes,” she hissed. “This is just  _ great. _ ”

“What did I do?” Thoughtful felt absolutely baffled. What was making Listener irritated now? Did she always do this?

“Oh, nothing… just… sometimes I wish I  _ wasn’t _ a mindreader.”

_ Oh… _

Thoughtful took a deep breath.  _ I’m CERTAIN I don’t have a crush on Whiteout. I mean… it would only make sense I’d be gravitated to my first real friend. Nothing romantic about that at all. _

_ And even if it was… why would Listener care? Does it really make her that uncomfortable? _

Listener’s frown only deepened.

Shaking his head, he decided to fall back into a more crowded clump of NightWings in hopes that he’d get some privacy with his thoughts. He slowed his wingbeats, letting the dragons swoop past him, before picking up the pace once more. His wings were burning even more intensely now, but he would just have to deal with it. 

After a couple more minutes of tired flapping, he saw Queen Vigilance’s large shape up ahead signal the tribe and begin descending into the plains below.

Air rushing past his ears, Thoughtful flew alongside his tribe-mates, like being part of a river, until they all slowed down and landed. When he hit the ground, his wings felt like they had blisteringly cold water poured onto them, only for it to cool down into a soothing temperature. He noted the grass here wasn’t  _ quite  _ as lush as what could be found in the Night Kingdom, though perhaps he was just imagining that.

If he remembered correctly, Jade Mountain was somewhere around here, meaning they were nearly halfway across the continent already. He prayed he wouldn’t have to undergo another long flight like  _ that  _ again.

Mountains and hills sprawled before him, stretching through the soil he stood upon. There were hardly any plants here, or at least, that’s how it seemed in the darkness of the night.

Thoughtful heard wings flapping, and looked up to find Queen Vigilance hovering above her tribe. “We will travel by foot from now on,” she called. “We will stop once we reach the river that lies between these mountains and the rest of the continent.”

He wanted to ask Listener if she knew how long that was, but she probably wouldn’t answer him. So instead, he put his head down and began walking, watching the movement of his own talons to keep him entertained.

Like the flight, this seemed to drag on for an insufferably long time. Occasionally, Thoughtful would glance up, only to find that the moons had hardly inched any further across the sky than when he last checked. Crickets sang their songs throughout the walk, and the occasional flock of birds flew off at the sight of the dragons, but almost nothing else happened. It was an absolutely monotonous journey.

Just when he was beginning to question if there would ever be an end to the journey, he heard something. It was faint, but there, and it sounded like…

_ Water!! _

Despite his exhaustion, Thoughtful quickened his pace, desperate to see if they had reached their destination. He didn’t think he could take another minute of this. _Please, please, please, please…_  
And then, the tribe stopped. The queen once again hovered above the tribe to address them, and this time, her often unreadable expression had a hint of relief showing. “We have arrived at the river. There’s a forest ahead where you can hunt for food, as well as rest, but do not go far. It is crucial that we do not alert any other tribes of our presence. We will continue our relocation tomorrow night.”

_ Oh, thank the moons we’re done!  _ Thoughtful silently celebrated.  _ Well, for now at least. _

With Vigilance’s announcements over, some of the dragons around him who presumably hadn’t packed any food began moving in the direction of the forest, eager to catch some prey.

Just when he was about to find his parents and eat with them, he noticed Whiteout slumped over in a far space, alone. She seemingly hadn’t bothered with prey, and if he had to guess, she was probably starving from the flight. But there she was… just… by herself, and probably hungry.

_...I can probably catch something for her, _ he decided. His sore limbs disagreed, but their compliance wasn’t a factor. But although he wasn’t about to take more food from his parents than what was necessary, he wanted to rest as soon as possible. So, he would only catch some prey for Whiteout, and take some of the packed, staler food for himself.

Shaking out his wings to wake them back up, he quietly flapped over the river and headed into the forest ahead after landing.

_ Alright, hopefully it won’t take long to find something…  _ It was rather often that Thoughtful would have to hunt back home, due to the poor state his family found themselves in. Thankfully, this meant he had plenty of practice. Catching some prey would be a cinch.

Taking a breath to clear his mind, he ducked down and listened carefully for any movement. The crickets were chirping unhelpfully loudly at the moment, but he had to do his best to ignore them.

Time passed. The wind rustled the branches surrounding him. Sounds of little footsteps appeared to his right, behind him.

There.

In the blink of an eye, Thoughtful whipped around and caught the creature that was skittering up a tree. It was a squirrel. He preferred rabbits, but he was still grateful he’d caught it first try. Clutching its head with just enough force, he jerked it to the side and snapped its neck.

Then, he flew over the river and approached his parents. “Hi Mom, hi Dad,” he greeted them. “You two doing okay?”

“Oh hi, sweetie!” chirped Starcaller, who was eating a rabbit next to her mate. “Yes, we’re doing just fine. You?”

“Yep.” Thoughtful felt a bit awkward about the next part. “So, uh… is it okay if I sit next to someone else tonight?”

Starcaller looked puzzled. “Why?”

_ Hoo, boy.  _ “Um… I just, spent a lot of time talking to some other dragons during the trip, and, um, thought I’d hang out with them…”

“Are they the dragons you met at the party…?” inquired Starcaller.

Thoughtful saw no reason to lie. “Yeah, that’s them,” he said, praying that his gaze was steady. His parents always talked about how socializing could negatively impact his studies and grades. Granted, he wasn’t entirely sure if school would even start back up once the tribe had finished relocating, but he bet his parents would find some way to keep him learning. And there wasn’t anything necessarily wrong with that - learning was important and fulfilling.

But not once had he really… gone somewhere that was this close to stepping out of line. Socializing often had a negative connotation when his parents spoke about it. Something about being with Listener and trying to help Whiteout made him feel murky and nauseous in his stomach.

With a sigh, Starcaller conceded, and handed him a rabbit. “Alright, fine. I suppose it would be a little awkward for you to try and continue studying during a time like this…”

“Likewise,” said Thoughtful, accepting the prey from his mother. “I  _ might’ve _ accidentally left my scrolls at home in the rush…”

“... _ What?!”  _ hissed Starcaller.

“Not cool,” agreed Nightseer.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Thoughtful raised his talons innocently. “But, I mean… look around! I don’t think I’m the only one who forgot their scrolls.”

Starcaller and Nightseer both did so, and eventually Nightseer said: “Alright. I guess we can probably find some way to alleviate this issue. I hope we have tutors quickly after we reach our new home.”

Thoughtful nodded before saying: “Okay then, uh, goodnight Mom. Goodnight Dad.”

“Goodnight,” they both replied.

Now that he’d gotten that over with, he padded over to where Whiteout was sitting and held out the squirrel he caught to her. “Here,” he said. “I got you this. I figured you were hungry.”

To his relief, she took the squirrel and muttered “Thank you,” before digging in. She still seemed rather slow in her eating, but at least she hadn’t decided to deliberately starve herself, like a part of him had worried she would.

“Mind if I sit here?” Thoughtful asked. When she shook her head, he curled up near her, though made sure he wasn’t too close because he did NOT have a crush on her,  _ Listener. _

After a brief period of silence, he tried to start a conversation. Taking a bite out of his rabbit, he said: “So… I wonder where our new home will be. Perhaps we’re already here, and when Vigilance said we’d continue our relocation tomorrow, she meant we’d begin settling here in the mountains.”

Whiteout shook her head again, which made Thoughtful raise an eyebrow. “No… I’m sure our diamond will be full.”

“What makes you think that?” he asked.  _ And… what does that even mean? _

Whiteout looked up at the night sky. Moonlight shone from behind her, giving her dark blue scales a silver, luminescent quality. “I think… I think the sky talks to me.”

“You… you mean you’re a seer?!” Thoughtful didn’t truly believe it. Maybe she was feeling dazed from the flight. And he didn’t want to take everything she said as fact - he’d only just met her.

But… he also did want to believe her. He didn’t know why, but he just… did.

“Maybe,” Whiteout replied, resting her head on her talons. “Probably. High probability.”

_ I suppose I can’t be sure just yet. But… with her being the brother of Darkstalker, there  _ is  _ a good chance that she’s a seer. _

After eating another piece of his rabbit, Thoughtful decided to change the subject. Perhaps lighten the mood. Definitely lighten the mood.

After sifting through his brain, he remembered something from several years ago. “Wanna hear about the time I lost a rabbit like this to a couple of scavengers?” he asked, picking at the rabbit with his claws.

Whiteout managed a small smile, and replied: “Sure. I think I’d like that.”

After letting out a little sigh of relief at the sight of her smile, Thoughtful began. “I was just a year old. By that point, I was just learning how to hunt. My parents were having a difficult time managing, so it was important that I’d learn to hunt as soon as possible. After like, an hour of trial and error, I’d finally caught a rabbit, and was super proud of myself. So much so that when two scavengers from behind got my attention, I decided to try and catch  _ them,  _ too. After all, my parents needed all of the food they could get.”

“However, poor clumsy me had never encountered creatures like them before, and upon trying to catch them, I found that they’re actually quite clever. They crawled onto my body and make funny squeaking noises before climbing on top of my head and trying to beat it with their little fists!”

Whiteout snorted. “Their hands really are small… but it’s so adorable!”

Thoughtful nodded. As he looked out to the other NightWings while trying to remember the rest of his story, he saw Listener crowded around around five or six dragons. She was whispering to them, and they seemed to be listening quite intently. He could’ve sworn she looked back at either him or Whiteout multiple times, but perhaps he was just imagining things.

“Anyways…” he continued, his eyes returning to Whiteout’s. “They ended up hanging around my eyeballs and trying to beat  _ those _ , though luckily they didn’t have anything sharp on hand. Once they distracted me, I think one of their friends must’ve snatched the rabbit, because when I finally managed to get them off, the rabbit was gone, and so were the scavengers. Moral of the story, don’t be stupid like me and bite off more than you can chew! Because then I had to spend another  _ hour  _ or two trying to catch some other prey.”

Whiteout laughed, and clapped quietly as to not disturb the other dragons. There was something so indescribably wonderful about her laugh, but it was difficult to pinpoint exactly why. “Bravo!” she said. “You’re a good storyteller. I bet your head has a bunch of scrolls in it.”

After a short laugh, Thoughtful replied: “Thanks. Frankly, I thought it was awful.” He laughed a bit more nervously. “But, um… glad you liked it.”

“Mhm.”

The two finished their meals, and Whiteout curled up like Thoughtful to get some rest. He noticed his heart had been beating a lot faster than usual, but he also felt…  _ warmer _ . Which was funny because Whiteout was part IceWing, but also, made him exclaim:  _ This is the Whiteout from before. This is my first real friend. _

He missed her a lot more than he expected. But he also now couldn’t stop thinking about… the  _ other  _ Whiteout. The one who was cold, distant, drenched in guilt.

The one who wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Arctic’s death.

As he closed his eyes, letting blackness overtake his vision, he couldn’t help but wonder one thing only:

_ How am I supposed to convince her that her father's demise wasn’t her fault? _


	4. Chapter 4

“Psst! Thoughtful! Wake up!”

Groaning in exhaustion, Thoughtful lifted his spectacles from his face and rubbed his eyes. As he rested his glasses back on his face, he blinked until he could see clearly, and saw a dark shape sitting in front of him with distinct silver scales on their face.

“Listener?” he muttered, yawning. “W-what is it?”

The sky was a deep orange with some smudges of black working their way up. It couldn’t already be time to continue moving, right? He imagined it would be at least half an hour until he would have to leave.

“Um…” Listener twiddled her thumbs. “I found this really pretty lake here and thought I’d show you it.”

As Thoughtful prepared to stretch, he asked: “Shouldn’t we be resting? Tomorrow’s flight could be even more strenuous than the last.”

“That’s true, but I just thought it’d be cool to spend some time with you. So like…  _ please _ ?”

He couldn’t help but feel confused by this gesture. Listener was such a difficult dragon for him to understand. In fact, even though the mindreader did talk like most dragons, he found it easier to understand Whiteout at times. Still, he didn’t want to get on her bad side, and he supposed he could spend a bit of time relaxing before the tribe left.

“Okay, I guess I could spare some time,” he informed Listener, whose expression seemed to have brightened a bit before he spoke. “Where’s the lake?”

She gestured for him to follow, before quietly heading off. 

The forest looked beautiful in the sunset. The deeper colors emanating from the light above brought out the greens of the surrounding leaves and stems in a remarkable way, while the river the two were walking along looked dazzling. The soft navy color of the sparkling water became almost purple in the sunlight. 

As the two carefully weaved through the branches, Thoughtful breathed: “Wow… and I thought the Night Kingdom looked pretty in the sunlight. This is amazing.”

“Yeah. Like you, I didn’t spend all that much time outside the kingdom. Wish I had...”

Again, he found himself wondering where all of the aggression from before had gone. He suspected it was because he hadn’t given a thought about Whiteout yet-

Listener flinched. Focusing deeply, Thoughtful tried to clear the hybrid from his mind. He hoped he could distract her, because she seemed to hate Whiteout for whatever reason and-

_ There I go again… darn it. _

“Listener,” he said through the mania inside his head. Blocking mindreaders was so much more difficult than he’d thought. “Do you have many friends?”

She pushed a branch out of her way, holding it open for Thoughtful. “I’d say I have a decent amount. Why do you ask?”

“Well… what’s it like? I mean, I never really had any friends until the party, believe it or not…” Just as he finished talking, he looked ahead and saw the clearing before them in all of its beauty. “...Whoa.”

Surrounded by a vast array of orchids and roses was a startlingly large lake. The river flowed into it, causing the lake to share its breathtaking, sparkling water. Beams of sunlight shot into the it, giving it the same dazzling quality he noted from before.

“Hmm…” Listener thought out loud, perhaps ignoring Thoughtful’s awe. “I don’t think I could answer that. What’s it like  _ not _ having any friends?”

“It feels… normal, I guess…” Though, now that he gave it more thought, his definition of normal was probably vastly different from Listener’s. It made him wonder about other aspects of the mindreader’s life. How advantageous of a state was her family in? He guessed they probably didn’t struggle nearly as much as his family, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Well, if I had to guess,” she began. “Not having any friends would probably suck. I’d go crazy. But I guess since you’re used to being so…  _ independent- _ ”

“You can say lonely - I won’t be offended,” he interrupted.

“Since you’re used to being so  _ independent _ , I’d guess you’re just a-okay.” She paused before walking up to the lake and presumably absorbing the clearing’s warm, vibrant colors. By now, the sun was touching the horizon. It wouldn’t be too much longer before the rest of the tribe would wake up. “That’s an admirable trait. Being self-sufficient like that. I’d probably die of insanity if I was isolated from everyone else.”

Thoughtful sidled up beside her, observing the landscape. “Thanks. I, um, appreciate that. But… I do kind of feel like I’ve been missing out on something.”

“What do you mean?”

Again, Whiteout flashed through her mind, this time the warm, lighthearted version of her from last night. “I don’t know. It’s just… any time I think about going back to the way I was before, I can’t help but cringe. And frankly, that bothers me.”

She looked confused, and perhaps slightly amused. “What, are you afraid of catching the  _ fun  _ disease?”

Thoughtful shook his head, saying: “No, no, that’s not it…” before snorting. “Fun disease…” He paused to compile his thoughts. “It’s just… I have a job to do. I need to help my parents, because before the mess with Darkstalker happened, we were often struggling to make it through the week not hungry. And things certainly haven’t become easier for us now that we’re moving…”

The mindreader nodded in understanding.

Nodding back and breathing a small sigh of relief, he said: “Thanks.” All of this time, it was hard for him to say that she had understood him. Even if she had, what with her mindreading abilities, the way she acted certainly didn’t betray that sentiment. But now… perhaps he could have another friend. That would surely be nice.

He felt the warm touch of Listener’s wings brush up against his own. And then, the mindreader turned her head, looking into his eyes. Though he wasn’t a mindreader, what he saw in her eyes made him feel really nervous.

“Um…” Despite his best efforts, he instinctively backed a small step away from her. 

Likely feeling the shock in his mind, Listener jerked away from him. “S-sorry…” she muttered, her eyes flicking to the ground apologetically.

Okay. That would probably explain a lot.

_ Now think, Thoughtful. Listener, probably, maybe has a crush on you. Listener, thinks you have a crush on Whiteout, WHICH YOU PROBABLY DON’T. Think really hard on this one: why does she get upset whenever you think about Whiteout? _

_ I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t gone to the party in the first place. How am I supposed to… not let  _ this _ happen? _

“...It’s fine,” Thoughtful said quietly, turning away from her and letting his gaze drift towards the soft, yet spiky green ground. He couldn’t help but feel more weighed down every day. Because this wasn’t helping.

Interrupting him from his thoughts, Listener said: “Um, Thoughtful? I just… why do you worry about Whiteout so much?”

“I mean…” His eyes flicked back to Listener as he turned his head. “Why wouldn’t you? She’s going through a ton, and she isn’t getting the support she needs from anyone.”

“Oh.” She looked as if her expectations had been subverted. “I thought you were just doing it because you…  _ like  _ her.”

For once, the mindreader actually said that seriously. Taking a breath, he stopped to consider this. Did he really… feel that way towards Whiteout?

…

_ No. _

_ I can’t. Not when I have a family and tribe to serve. I can’t spend my time like that, and let my attention be diverted. _

_ Oh, what was I doing back there?! Shouldn’t I have been helping scout out the area for the queen or some- _

“You know,” Listener interrupted his thoughts. “I don’t think you should stress so much about that kind of stuff. At least, not right now when the tribe’s in such an awkward state.”

He tried to take this in, but couldn’t help shaking his head. “I just… don’t know about any of this.” He looked ahead - the sun had almost sunk beneath the horizon. “And I think we need to go now. The tribe will be leaving any moment now.”

As Thoughtful spread his wings and braced himself for flight, Listener said: “Look… I’m sorry.”

“Again, it’s fine...”

“No, Thoughtful. I’m really, really sorry!”

“Is something wrong?” He felt worry rising through his chest.

“Just…” She paused, as if considering everything. Her dark wings tensed slightly. “I think I’ve been kind of insensitive. I’m… sorry.”

The stress of getting back to the tribe in time was really getting to Thoughtful. “That’s sweet, but…  _ we should probably hurry! _ ”

“R-right.”

In order to prevent anyone from possibly seeing them thanks to the little daylight still present, Thoughtful decided they should run back to the camp rather than flying. It was a bit slower, but with luck, they wouldn’t arouse suspicion once arriving.

As he dodged the rough, ridged branches whipping towards them, he found himself wondering if Whiteout was awake yet. If she was, he hoped he had cheered her up last night. It would be so gratifying to see her acting more upbeat, even if the weight of her situation was still rather crushing.

Then, interrupting his thoughts, a loud screech of terror sounded from the camp.

“Whoa!” Thoughtful said at the same time as Listener gasped and slowed herself. He pressed his talons down hard on the dirt in an effort to slow himself, until eventually he came to a halt. His silvery claws had been stained with musty brown and stung a bit from the shock, but it was nowhere near the thump his heart had given. 

Perking up his ears, he looked and listened closely through the thick leaves around him. Now, they were only five tail-lengths from the camp, but he was unsure whether it would be a good idea to enter just yet. At first, he could only hear indistinct conversation within the camp, but the tone of the commotion was panicked. A few seconds later, he heard several voices join in the fray, and eventually it got so loud that he felt he  _ had  _ to get a closer look. 

Praying that no one would notice them being out this late, Thoughtful stepped forward and gingerly brushed a leaf out of his way to enter the camp, slowly emerging from the darkness with Listener right behind him.

And, in the middle of the camp, a NightWing laid lifeless in a glistening pool of blood. Their neck had a deep, serrated gash painted across it, and as he crept closer along with the other dragons to get a better look, he saw their dull, blank eyes - far beyond saving.

“What happened?!” he asked, scared out of his mind. “Who… who is…” As he looked closer, his heart thumping harder and harder against his chest, he realized who the corpse was.

Just as he did, a NightWing across from him cried: “ALLKNOWING IS DEAD!!” 

_ No… the queen’s top seer… gone. _

By now, everyone was up. Some were talking with others, fear ridden across their words, while others, such as Listener ( _ especially _ Listener, actually), were petrified. 

Thoughtful felt empty, like his heart had been turned to stone. Someone as important to the survival of the NightWings as Allknowing was… gone. All he could mutter was: “Who… did this..?

A couple other dragons echoed his words, and as he bit one of his claws in his nervousness, one spoke up: “I bet it was Whiteout!”

“What?!” Thoughtful felt immediately skeptical. She wasn’t a murderer! How could someone even suggest something like that?

“She’s the brother of that monster Darkstalker, and the daughter of the traitor Arctic,” the dragon continued. Thoughtful could hear other dragons murmuring their agreement, which gave him an awful, sinking feeling in his stomach. “Why should we believe she’s any different?”

“Because if ANY of you had been around her, you’d know that she would never do anything like that!” He looked around the camp for Whiteout. Where was she? She didn’t kill Allknowing. He knew she never would.

Just as he saw her, another NightWing piped in: “I mean… she  _ is  _ part IceWing. Trying to sabotage us sounds exactly like something an IceWing would do. Her father almost did, after all.”

Amidst the accusations, he saw her, frozen in pure fear. She was even worse than before. 

And then, dragons started towards her, likely with malicious intent.

“NO!” Thoughtful launched into the air and beat his wings against the cold air of dusk to land heavily between the small mob of dragons and Whiteout. “She didn’t do it! I know she didn’t! Did  _ any _ of you see the murder happen? Any?!”

At first, there was silence. Listener looked terrified, and her eyes looked almost guilt-ridden. But then, the same dragon from before said: “I saw it happen. And if you need further proof, look at how deep the gash is in Allknowing’s neck.” He wrinkled his snout and pointed at the hybrid’s serrated claws. “Those IceWing talons don’t lie.”

“No...”

Thoughtful turned around. Whiteout was shaking with fear, her expression breaking. “No…” It seemed all she could muster was that word.

“Liar…” the dragon snarled, readying himself into position. Though it was difficult to make heads or tails of the situation, Thoughtful felt tempted to oppose him. But… he couldn’t bring himself to fight a tribe-mate, and he didn’t even know if Whiteout was innocent for sure, no matter what he tried to tell them or himself. All he could do was stare.

“Enough.” Queen Vigilance’s calm voice rang through the crowd, and as she pushed her wings through the mob, breaking it up, she spoke calmly: “Once we can prove her guilt, this dragon will be met with a punishment in due time.”

“Why not now?!” one dragon yelled, outraged.

“Because we don’t have time for that,” the queen answered, slight aggression edging its way into her voice. “We have a new enemy to face.”

“New enemy?” Thoughtful didn’t think things would get any weirder from here. Perhaps he was wrong.

Vigilance flew up to the river and turned around, facing her tribe. “Everyone,” she called. “We will continue our relocation now. Though we have almost arrived at our destination, there is something we must do first.”

The NightWings gathered around her, intrigue building in their murmurs.

“Our new home is the rainforest. First, we must clear it of RainWings, which shouldn’t be too difficult of a task. Then, we will be safe.”

No way. As far as he knew,  _ nothing  _ like this had ever been attempted in NightWing history. But… would this turn out well at all? Surely it would - the RainWings weren’t  _ that _ much of a threat, from what he’d read up on.

After Allknowing’s death, though, he wasn’t really sure about anything anymore. She was the queen’s top seer, and even though there were numerous other seers to pick from, the queen had made up her mind. They would have to win the battle.

Thankfully, this news seemed to distract everyone from Whiteout. She seemed like one of the most wonderful dragons he had met up to that point. But… maybe it was just an act. He had only known her for a couple days, after all…

_ But you saw how she acted. It wasn’t a trick, I know it. It couldn’t have been… _

And then, interrupting his thoughts, Listener tapped a claw against his shoulder. “Thoughtful, Whiteout didn’t do it.”

He was so surprised to hear this from  _ her  _ that he turned his head quickly enough to accidentally hit her in the jaw.

“OW!” she cried, clutching her mouth in pain.

“Sorry! But… what do you mean?” How would  _ Listener _ have a lead on this? Wasn’t she rather ambivalent towards Whiteout? Wouldn’t she be  _ encouraging  _ the other bunch of NightWings…?

Or maybe Thoughtful was too stressed about all of this to even think clearly.

“I can’t explain right now, and I don’t know who killed Allknowing… but I have an idea.” Listener looked slightly panicked as she spoke, as if she was jumping into a river colder than the most freezing parts of the Ice Kingdom. “But I’m almost certain Whiteout didn’t do it.”

Unsure of what to make of this, he nodded, whispered “Okay…”, and turned around to talk to Whiteout. He needed to talk to her now. 

Once again, Whiteout was in a rather depressive state, with her talons covering her face, when he sat down to speak with her. “Whiteout…”

“The rain will kill us all…” she said softly, in an almost trance-like tone.

“What..?”

“We’re stepping straight into an endless night...”

Was this a prophecy? The ‘rain’ part was pretty telling, but… with all he had witnessed today, it felt hard to trust her now. But… she  _ was  _ innocent (apparently), as he’d hoped. So…

“Whiteout, are you really a seer?” He needed to know now, before the tribe would leave.

The beautiful blue hybrid lifted her face and replied: “Yes. I can see the reds and blacks up ahead. And the rain will kill us all…”


	5. Chapter 5

The stinging needles of the cold air assaulted Thoughtful’s scales as he flew at a breakneck pace alongside his tribe. The leaves whipping past him became larger, and the surrounding flowers became more and more exotic. His nose would’ve been completely overwhelmed by the amount of smells and aromas lingering in the air if it wasn’t for his thudding heart, which dampened his thoughts with dread.

He didn’t want to believe Whiteout’s prophecy. He really didn’t. He had been made uncomfortable enough by the abandonment of the Night Kingdom - if things got worse… he wasn’t sure how he’d feel. It would certainly be a gross mix of emotions… but hopelessness would probably be chief among them.

Because his tribe was probably about to die.

As his wings continued to strain on and on, he felt fatigue burrowing its way into his muscles. The undergrowth around him was beginning to look darker, though perhaps instead of exhaustion, it was thanks to the density of the plants above cutting out more moonlight. Either way, he was beginning to feel unwell.

Just as his talons were beginning to scrape through the thick, musty ground from tiredness, silvery moonlight shone brilliantly into a large clearing. The NightWings stopped, and so did he.

Queen Vigilance’s eyes flicked across the tribe - Thoughtful assumed she was checking to ensure everyone was here and accounted for. After a few moments passed, she quietly spoke: “Search this place. If you find a RainWing, kill it. We will not waste our time.” After that, she motioned with her wing, and the dragons around him scattered, except for Whiteout, who crept up next to him.

“Aren’t you gonna fight?” asked Thoughtful.

Whiteout’s eyes shared the same glassy, regretful sheen she first adopted after seeing her father die right in front of her. “I… don’t think I can. My talons aren’t sharp enough to carve.”

Even though she had talons that were arguably sharper than any NightWing’s, he understood what she meant. “But Whiteout, if you fight, you could help earn back the trust of the tribe. Plus, we need all the help we can get…” He trailed off as Whiteout’s expression remained. She was clearly firm in her decision not to fight, but he wondered what exactly caused it.

He sighed. Whatever the reason may have been, he would have to respect it. He didn’t want to force the poor hybrid into something like this. “Just… please stay safe, then,” he told her, unconsciously grasping one of her talons and squeezing it.

When he joined his tribe in the searching, he noticed something - no one was there. Every hammock and hut he searched was completely abandoned, and save for the wingbeats and talonsteps of his comrades, the rainforest was whisper quiet. _Perhaps I was overreacting,_ he thought. _Perhaps Whiteout isn’t actually a seer. Maybe she’s actually insane…_

These paranoid thoughts lingered in his pressured mind while he softly landed on a platform. It was among the highest treetops in the rainforest, and it was quite relieving to see the moon in this much clarity after enduring the suffocating atmosphere of the undergrowth. The platform felt soft and warm under his talons, and it amazed him that the RainWings were able to build something so comfortable purely from materials of the rainforest.

As he continued walking, he stepped on an especially warm spot on the platform. Kneeling down, he felt around, and that’s when he realized that these platforms had probably been abandoned recently.

_…The RainWings know we’re here, don’t they?_

Just as he began to stand up, though, something slammed into his side, knocking him to the floor. He gasped in surprise, and rolled around to see his attacker - a RainWing. _How did it ambush me like that…? Was I really not paying enough attention?_

The RainWing held him down, and he struggled. Just as he was managing to break its grip, though, its jaws snapped open. He wasn’t sure what it was about to do - perhaps it was going to bite him, so he used his back talons to kick the RainWing off of him.

Though the dragon looked dazed, it still looked ready to fight. As Thoughtful staggered off the ground, he yelled: “I found one!!” to his comrades. At this, the RainWing lunged towards him, but he was ready. He caught it with his front talons and, turning around, slammed it onto the ground.

But then, a force came from in front of him and tackled him. He was once again on his back, but as he struggled once more, he found the thing that had tackled him was materializing into a crimson red dragon. Pulses of a brighter red flowed across its scales, almost as if they were magical.

_Can RainWings… camouflage? Or did an animus do this? Perhaps they were given a special item?_ But as he felt the weight of the dragon lifted off of him by a NightWing, he wondered if all RainWings had this ability. He knew they had the ability to change their scale color - RainWings were frequently seen in marketplaces, showing off their scales, but he’d never seen them become invisible.

While he regained his footing, he watched as the dragon that had saved him fought with two RainWings, one of red coloring, the other of dark purple. At first, the NightWing seemed to be managing just fine, keeping his guard up and managing to trip the purple RainWing with his tail. He fought with an elegant fierceness that made Thoughtful feel a bit of pride for his tribe.

But then, just as Thoughtful was rushing over to join the fight, the RainWing, hissing, opened its jaws. In the moonlight, he was able to see a black liquid shoot from the dragon's fangs, and land straight on the NightWing's cheek.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But then, a sizzling sound emanated from Thoughtful's ally.

And then he screamed.

Fear swelled up in Thoughtful's chest as he stared down the dragon that had just inflicted... whatever it had done to the NightWing. Smoke was rising from the dragon’s face, and it almost looked as if his scales were melting.

_The rain will kill us all…_

As the RainWing's ally managed to stand back up, more enemies began appearing from the dark. Though he wanted to avenge his ally, he was mostly confident that he would die. What he needed to do instead was warn the others, before it was too late.

His eyes flicked from side to side for a moment, and to his relief, there appeared to be an opening to his left. As his heart pulsed wildly, he darted towards the opening, soaring towards the queen. Up in the air, he noticed the entire rainforest had become a battlefield. He saw more and more elegant yet dangerous shapes materializing from the dark of the area. Whiteout was correct - the NightWing tribe was wholly unprepared for the onslaught of the rainforest dragons.

Thoughtful was almost caught by RainWings a couple of times, but managed to evade them. Eventually, after what felt like several minutes of maneuvering through the area, he managed to find Queen Vigilance. She was near the clearing where they had entered, observing the battle with a still look. Whiteout was watching the fight next to the queen with a fragile expression, keeping her wings tucked in close as if she was trying to make herself look as small as possible. It seemed to have been working somewhat.

"Everyone!" called Thoughtful, hoping he'd be heard well. "The RainWings can camouflage! I think they can also shoot venom! Don't let your guard down!" But then, just as he spoke in midair, he managed to make out the shape of a RainWing in the treetops above Vigilance.

"QUEEN VIGILANCE!!" Thoughtful yelled, but the RainWing's jaws had already snapped open. Whiteout's ears twitched, and she looked up with wide eyes. "LOOK OU-"

He cut off as Whiteout tackled the queen. They rolled in a ball of blue, white, and black for a second before breaking apart.

As Thoughtful continued to fly towards them, he saw Vigilance's furious expression as she spat angry words to Whiteout, who hadn't yet regained her footing. However, neither of them looked to be burning. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Once he landed near the two dragons, Vigilance was still scolding Whiteout. "Maybe they were _right_ about you...!" she hissed. "You've caused nothing but trouble for me and my tribe!"

"Queen Vigilance," Thoughtful greeted as he approached her. "I... I think we need to retreat."

Vigilance's burning eyes flicked towards him. "Why? We've been holding our own this entire time."

"Maybe, but... I really don't think we will for much longer."

The queen wrinkled his nose at him. "And why is that?"

Every impulse in Thoughtful's body was going off right now, trying to convince him to back down now and let the queen handle things. But he had seen the horrors of the RainWings' venom up close, and considering Whiteout's prophecy... he had to try.

"They have venom. The RainWings. I saw one shoot an ally a couple minutes ago, and it... it was awful."

Vigilance looked quite unconvinced.

"Also," he continued, feeling a couple drops of sweat run down his head. "Whiteout is a seer. She had a prophecy before our battle - that we would lose. More specifically, that we would all die."

"The rain will kill us all..." Whiteout echoed in a small voice.

Vigilance shook her head. "Get back on the battlefield. Maybe even do me a favor and die, so you'll stop getting in my way. You too, half-breed." She turned her head to Whiteout, taking her arm and shaking it heavily. "You especially, actually."

"She was saving you!" Thoughtful cried.

"From what?"

"The-the venom...! Didn't you-"

"No! Get out of my sight!"

Thoughtful could only stand, frozen with frustration, until Whiteout gasped and heaved herself off the floor to tackle the queen again. Thoughtful's stomach twisted with confusion for a split second, before he saw a RainWing pounce right where Vigilance had stood.

This time, when the queen had stood up, her eyes were ridden not with anger, but with surprise at the enemy in front of her. Without a second thought, Thoughtful leapt at the RainWing and exchanged blows, managing to sink his talons in their shoulder and tear their scales. Blood welled up in the wound, and they convulsively struck back, scoring Thoughtful’s chest deeply. He roared in pain, before recoiling back.

Then, in a flash of black scales, Vigilance leapt on the RainWing and broke their neck in a swift motion. Thoughtful shivered as their body slowly crumpled to the ground. Watching dragons die was easily one of the worst parts of participating in a battle.

After letting out a slow breath, Vigilance said: “So a RainWing snuck up on me. I suppose I’ll call off the battle.”

Thoughtful just shook his head, before padding over to Whiteout and kneeling down to help her up. “I’m sorry…” he instinctively muttered, feeling bad for the hybrid. She took his talon in hers and pulled herself up, hiding her expression. If he was in her shoes, he wasn’t sure how he’d feel right now. The battle was just… crazy.

“Thoughtful. Whiteout.” Vigilance walked up to them both with an impatient expression. “The battlefield. Now.”

What now? If the queen wouldn’t order a retreat, and Whiteout was telling the truth, they all would surely perish. He couldn’t help but feel completely frustrated. The idea of deserting even edged its way into his mind, but he quickly dismantled it. He lived to serve his tribe - he’d rather die than abandon them.

He stared at the battle. Several anguished screams echoed all the way to where he stood, and he saw several NightWing corpses lying here and there. While there were a couple dead RainWings littered throughout the battlefield, the amount of fallen NightWings greatly outnumbered them.

_I guess that means… death it is, huh?_

Just as he was about to bound back into the fight, though, an idea popped into his mind. A strange one, but it was worth exploring nonetheless.

If the queen wasn’t going to issue a retreat… what if _he_ did? The queen wasn’t always the one to signal her tribe to retreat, since she couldn’t be everywhere at once. Meaning the tribe would probably be used to hearing retreat orders from other dragons. Hopefully. Because if they weren’t… he could only imagine the kind of terror the queen would bring upon him.

After flashing his plan through his head one more time, he whispered: “Whiteout… I’m going to try and get everyone to retreat. If the tribe listens, which I’m pretty sure it will, follow them. If not… you should run away. I… I really hope it doesn’t get to that point, but I don’t think you’ll survive if you stay.” With a rueful look, he glanced back at the battlefield and spoke: “I don’t think anyone will survive if they stay…”

Whiteout stared at him with her crystal clear blue eyes, before nodding and slipping away.

_Guess it’s time to do this, then_

Spreading his wings, he bounded into the air. The rush of the air caused him to squint, but he ignored it until he felt he had traveled far enough into the air. The entirety of the rainforest was before him.

“NIGHTWINGS!!!” he screamed, throwing all caution to the wind. “RETREAT!!! RETREAT!!! RETREAT!!!”

At first, his words had no effect. His heart dropped like a rock. Did he just set himself up for the most humiliating punishment of any NightWing in history?

But then, one dragon, who was grappling with a RainWing, perked up their ears. And after a moment of hesitation, the dragon slipped out of the struggle and began flying towards Thoughtful. A couple seconds later, other dragons followed. By the time ten seconds of hovering in the air had passed, he counted around seventy five dragons retreating. The fighting had stopped. The only NightWings left in the battlefield were dead.

Which was... a lot of dragons.

_I need to go, I need to go, I need to go…_

Thoughtful soared past the trees and vines, blending in with the mass of evacuating NightWings. Like a plume of black dust, they rushed towards the exit to the rainforest.

Before he managed to escape the clearing, he saw the queen shouting at the wave of fleeing dragons.

“Stop!!” cried Vigilance. “I am your queen, and I am-“

“No, Vigilance!” Thoughtful was not about to let his risk go to waste. “There are hardly any of us left! Do you want to be responsible for the extinction of the tribe?!” He couldn’t believe his mouth. It was awful talking to the queen like this, but he cared about the tribe too much to allow it to be destroyed.

Vigilance fell silent, but her smoldering eyes lit a flame of anxiety in his mind. After a moment of consideration, she joined her tribe in flight, leaving behind what was going to be the new home of the NightWings.

“You disobeyed me. You all disobeyed me!!”

Queen Vigilance was rather livid. Once the tribe had returned to where they had camped, the queen had wasted no time in scolding them. The shame in Thoughtful’s heart only grew, but he tried to combat it with the knowledge that the tribe was okay. However, he still wondered if there was a chance for the tribe to have won.

“If you had just listened to my orders, you would have a home now. You would be safe! Do you not want to be safe?” The large dragon stormed up to Thoughtful and pressed a fist into his chest wound. It hurt like needles, and he yelped from the pain. “This is all _your_ fault. You did this!”

“Enough!” Listener piped up from the crowd of nervous dragons. “Your majesty, do you notice a decrease in the amount of dragons here?”

“Of course I do!” she spat. “It’s natural with any battle to lose dragons.

“We lost most of our tribe! There are less than eighty of us left!”

“What?!” Her eyes narrowed. “Liar. There surely are more…” She took to the skies and glanced around what was left of the tribe.

Listener, visibly frustrated, yelled: “If it wasn’t for Thoughtful, we would all be dead!”

Thoughtful felt worried. The queen, who he had put so much trust into, almost got them all killed. But how?

_Hmm…_ he pondered. _Well, I was never taught about RainWing camouflage in school. I didn’t know about venom either. Perhaps this has been secret to everyone, including her. Which… would make more sense._

_But… why was she so insistent on continuing the fight? Surely she knew the direction it was taking?_

When Vigilance returned from the skies, she let out a huff. Her eyes looked much more sober, as if she had calmed down from a rage. “I need some time to think,” she said, rubbing her temples. “I…” She shook her head and sighed. Then, she padded through the crowd of dragons and into a relatively unpopulated corner of the camp.

After a few nervous seconds passed, Thoughtful padded over to Listener, who was staring indignantly at the queen. “Hey, um…” He placed a talon on the mindreader’s shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly before turning around. “Thanks for sticking up for me, Listener. I was honestly terrified.”

“Yeah, I would be as well…” she admitted. “But… I guess it was the least I could do.” Her gaze drifted towards his chest, and her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. You’re probably going to want something for that wound.”

“O-Okay.” He nodded his head gratefully as the mindreader hurried over to the outskirts of the camp, where she plucked a large leaf from its stem and dipped it in the river to clean it. When she returned, she wrapped it around his chest, covering the wound. “There,” she said.

“Thank you,” he said before continuing: “Do you think, maybe I made the wrong choice? That we could’ve won the battle?”

“Absolutely not,” answered Listener. “We were completely unprepared. And even though we may never get another chance at the rainforest, due to how many dragons we lost, maybe that’s okay. Maybe we’re destined for somewhere else. Even though we lost Allknowing earlier, Her Majesty can still pick another seer.”

That raised a question in Thoughtful’s mind that had been brewing for some time. “Okay. So, about Whiteout… I’ve noticed you’ve been significantly less negative about her. I really hope this isn’t a bad question to ask, but it seemed like all of that just sort of vanished. Is there something that happened?”

Listener’s eyes went a little wide as she said: “W-what?! No, no… it’s just…” She sighed, slightly flushed. “I guess after what you talked about back before we left, I realized that maybe I’ve been too harsh about her. And that I’ve been rude. So, I’m sorry.”

“Look, it’s fine. I really do appreci-“ He cut off as a realization hit his mind like a bullet. “Wait, where is Whiteout?!” Panicked, his head twisted from side to side as he scanned the area. _Did she die? Oh moons, if she died, I… I think I-_

“She’s right there.” Listener pointed to a small dark blue shape in the crowd, outlined with white wings. A small smile formed on the mindreader’s face, which eventually turned into a snort.

“Hey, what’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just…” She cut off as she began chuckling. “You’re- you’re so paranoid about her. It’s adorable, to be honest. I guess it makes sense, though, considering your, uh, feelings…” She winked at him.

“Oh- okay, that’s seriously not true.” Though, he could already feel his cheeks warming slightly. “Buuuut, you’re one to talk! Considering _your_ feelings. And I’m not even a mindreader.”

“Towards her? What are you-“ After pausing, and then blinking, likely realizing who he was actually referring to, she yelled: “NO NO NO NO SHUT UP!!!” But it was far too late, for her cheeks appeared to be practically burning.

Thoughtful couldn’t help but smile, pleased that Listener was able to put aside, or even mock her pretty obvious crush on him for the sake of being a friend. He imagined it would be pretty difficult for him to do the same if he was put in a similar situation, but with Whiteou-

_Ah moons, I said it._

“HAH!” shrieked Listener.

Thoughtful took a moment to think, with a rather dubious expression, before quietly admitting: “Yeah… maybe I do have a crush on her. Maybe. I honestly don’t know.”

“I know,” Listener replied. “You do have one. It’s pretty obvious.”

He sighed in defeat, but still smirked. Perhaps he had been too afraid of change. Perhaps he had been fighting against an emotional river, with a current so strong that he could only barely swim in the opposite direction.

As he conceded to Listener: “Alright, you win,” he felt a bit more relaxed and at peace, like he had been trying to smother part of his heart. It was probably better for him to become more comfortable with these emotions.

“Thanks for talking, Listener,” he said, grateful. “I need to go find my parents.”

When she nodded, he turned around and began hovering above the camp of NightWings. “Mom?” he called. “Dad?” There was no response. After glancing around for a couple seconds, and finding no sign of them, he tried again. “Starcaller? Nightseer?”

Still nothing.

Hoping Listener could help, he returned to where she was settled and asked her about it. “So um… could you, like, use your mindreading to find my parents?” he said.

“Um. Not really, no. I haven’t a clue what they think about, and it’s not like I could just say: ‘MIND, FIND THIS DRAG-’”

“Okay, okay, I get the idea…”

Thoughtful continued to sift through the camp, carefully stepping around bunches of sleeping dragons. However, no matter how much he searched, he couldn’t find a trace of their familiar faces. His heartbeat began to gain speed as he continued to call their names, with the only response being his own echo. It felt like each beat spoke: _No, no, no…_ steadily and steadily.

“Nightseer?! MOM?! DAD?!” His heart began to plummet as the weight of the situation truly hit him.

_No…_

_They… they must’ve died in the battle._

_Both of them… gone…_

Letting out a cry of despair, he fell to his knees, sobbing. Everything seemed to fall away from him. The ground beneath him faded and blurred as he yelled: “NOOOOOOOO!!!” There was an empty feeling burrowing its way into his insides, like his heart was disintegrating.

His entire life, he had worked for not just his tribe, but his parents most of all. Now, they were gone, and just like that, he could feel years of effort falling away from him. Years he had spent for the sake of his parents, who he loved! Now, they were gone. Just like that.

_I wish I could go back…! If only I could’ve told them to stay behind!_

_WHY?! WHY, WORLD?!_

But then, just as a pounding headache began to form from his grief, engulfing his mind, he felt a cool wing slide gently onto his back. Sniffing, he turned his head to see Whiteout there beside him. She spoke no words, but the comfort of her wings was more than enough for him. The violent pulse of his emotions began to subside, and he felt his headache fading.

Taking a deep breath, he whispered: “Thank you…” and let his head rest on the hybrid’s shoulder, just as she had done a couple days prior. Though his tears continued to flow down his face, his heart felt as if it was already healing.

“I don’t know what to think anymore…” Thoughtful spoke quietly as he sat down next Whiteout, leaning against her. The hybrid had helped him move from where he had his breakdown, since he had it in the middle of the camp, which was rather embarrassing. Though that was the least of his concerns, but then again, it was probably better to avoid making a scene.

“It’ll be okay,” Whiteout replied, gazing out into the camp. “The tides will have to calm down at some point. Soon you’ll be able to swim more easily.”

“I know, but-“ He broke off as tears returned to his face. “I-I don’t know what I’m going to do without them…” He remembered the days he spent hunting with his family in the bright sun and familiar landscapes of the Night Kingdom. He remembered all of the time he spent being with his family, feeling _right_ , feeling at home with dragons that loved him very much. Now, there was none of that.

_Well-_ His eyes nervously crept towards Whiteout’s worried eyes. _Sure, like_ she _has any feelings for me. She might not have any other friends to my knowledge, but she’s naturally sweet, caring, and funny. And she’s just… so_ different _. And I’m just me._

Feeling a twinge of guilt, he shied his eyes away from her. _I don’t need to think about this. As wonderful as she is… imagine what would happen if she reacted badly!_ Images of the broken, miserable Whiteout he’d witnessed throughout the tribe flashed through his mind. The mere thought of _him_ causing that… it was _awful._

“Thoughtful?” Whiteout spoke softly but clearly, and he met her gaze nervously. “Your vision tunnels seem to be stagnant.”

“Oh. Guess I spaced out a little.”

“Could you, um, make some echoes? I don’t like the silence.”

“Alright.” _Easy thing,_ he thought. The only thing on the mind at the moment was his parents, though. He didn’t really want to talk about them, but… he did want to say something.

After taking some time to ponder, he recalled something. “There was once this time where my dad injured his wing, as well as his leg, from an accident involving some stubborn prey and a pit. Normally the pit wasn’t a problem, but this time he tripped into it and wasn’t able to slow himself in time. Afterwards, Mom and I told him we would simply hunt more prey to make up for that while he healed, but he asked us not to, since he preferred to just eat less and save the food. However, we wouldn’t take no for an answer.” It felt oddly positive telling these nostalgic tales alongside Whiteout’s cool presence, even if it pained him to even think about his parents now. “I ended up having less time than ever to study, or do anything else really, but I think we made the right decision. Or, even if we didn’t, it definitely felt right.”

“What was your mom like?” Whiteout asked. “Was she all blue?”

“I would definitely say so.” His face fell a little - it still hurt so much to remember Starcaller and Nightseer. But, he pressed on. “Yes, she was a little crazy sometimes about me getting my work done, but it was for the better. I wouldn’t be nearly as diligent at school as I am now if it wasn’t for her. Dad was good about that as well, but… Mom definitely was the one who helped me get to where I am today, academically.”

The hybrid nodded, but just as she was about to say something, Thoughtful saw the queen approaching them two. Anxiety flooded back into his mind as recollections of the queen’s fury came back full-force. “Q-Queen Vigilance.” He quickly stood up to address the queen, feeling a slight twinge of anguish leaving Whiteout’s side. “I’m so sorry about what I did earlier, I… I really shouldn’t have-“

But instead of yelling at him or scolding him, the queen simply spoke: “Please, come with me.”

She led him towards the area she had taken refuge in earlier, and when the two were far enough away from other dragons, she told him: “I… don’t trust my decision making anymore. Not fully, at least. Not after what just happened. I got too carried away, and I’d like to apologize.”

Thoughtful didn’t expect the apology, but he welcomed it. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“I also heard about what happened with your parents. That, I’d like to truly apologize for.”

He nodded silently, wishing not to speak to her about it any more than what was necessary. The queen had an expression of regret painted across her face that reminded him of how he felt. Perhaps the queen had experienced loss like this before, or even if she hadn’t, felt extremely guilty for all of the NightWing lives that were lost.

The queen continued. “I would like to make amends for what I have done, or at least attempt to do so. And, unfortunately, we recently lost my primary seer, Allknowing.”

“Wait, what are you trying to tell me?” Thoughtful asked, feeling rather nervous. He never had the opportunity to talk to the queen this closely - the uncanniness of that had already sunk in. But now what?

“What I’m trying to say is… if you would like, you can choose who my next primary seer will be. I’m not doing this just as an apology, but as a way of thanking you for saving my tribe. I acted carelessly and foolishly tonight, but you were the one who took initiative. I trust your decision-making.”

Thoughtful felt shocked, and reflected this in his widened eyes. Vigilance added: “You can turn down the offer if you’d like.”

At first, he was about to do just that. But then, he remembered the reason why he had felt the courage to shout false retreat orders. Why he had felt justified in his estimations of the battle’s outcome. Why he felt prepared.

That reason was a someone. Someone who didn’t give herself enough credit. Someone who was relentlessly angry at herself for a situation she had no control over in the first place. Someone who he knew was suited for the role of the queen’s seer, even if she didn’t think she had what it took. Someone he believed in.

“No, I don’t think I will,” he answered, a flicker of hope shining in his eyes. “I think I have someone in mind who could fill in for Allknowing.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the month-long wait. I've had pretty bad writer's block, and since this chapter contains quite a lot, I've made a lot of revisions with suggestions from friends before calling it a day. Expect the last few chapters of this story to take a decent amount of time to release as well - school just started back up and I'm going to be busier than I've been in a while.
> 
> With all of that said, please enjoy the latest chapter!

“Her?”

Thoughtful nodded, gazing down at Whiteout in the dark of the night. Large leaves almost enveloped her in the secluded area she was sitting. “That’s right,” he said. “She’s the best seer I know.”

“Hmm…” Vigilance gazed skeptically.

Once again, he found himself taking a gamble. He didn’t know how strong Whiteout’s seer powers were. They could be very inconsistent, and electing a seer other than her would probably yield a faster way to the tribe’s new home. However, he had enough confidence in her abilities to be mostly, probably convinced that things wouldn’t go _too_ badly.

But more importantly, this could be exactly what Whiteout has needed all of this time. He hoped after this, she would realize just how valuable she was. Not just as a seer, but as a dragon. Especially as a dragon.

Whiteout looked up at both of them with confusion plastered over her face. “W-what…?” was all she mustered.

Taking a breath and silently praying this would work, he knelt down to her and said: “So… since Allknowing is gone, the queen wants a new seer. I think you are definitely fit for the job, so… you can be her primary seer if you’d like.” He fidgeted nervously as he spoke, desperately hoping something like this wouldn’t break her even further. When he saw slight panic worm its way into her expression, he added hurriedly: “You don’t have to take her up if you don’t want to.”

If Whiteout wasn’t prepared to take the offer, he would accept that. He didn’t exactly expect her to be very enthusiastic about this. Hopefully if she did turn it down, she would still be well on her road to full recovery from everything that had been going on. It was difficult to tell how fragile she was, though, even after the time he’d spent with her. He was okay at deciphering her weird way of speaking, but he didn’t think he was great at actually maintaining a decent grasp on who she was.

Still, he hoped she would take the offer. If everything went well, she could become a lot stronger of a dragon. She wouldn’t be so closed off and broken and fragile and _miserable._ She could gain the respect of her tribe-mates. She could perhaps even gain a better grasp on her seer powers. This could be great for her. Maybe even the slander would stop.

 _Or, it could backfire and become a disaster,_ the nervous part of Thoughtful’s mind chimed in. _Wouldn’t this just make her a bigger target to those attempting to slander her? Couldn’t this break her confidence even further if she fails with her future sight? Couldn’t this put the TRIBE in jeopardy?!_

His eyes slowly widened as he realized what he was doing. What he was trying to do. But before he could even raise his talon to call it off, Whiteout’s eyes flickered, and she whispered: “Okay… I’ll do it.”

“Wait, what?!” he blurted, before covering his mouth. Whiteout glanced at him, looking slightly hurt. But… there was something different about her expression. She still looked really scared. Her face still had that twinge of insecurity he’d always seen after the death of her father. But her narrowed eyes, glazed with persistence, looked almost as if she was fighting that fear.

“Whiteout, um…” Thoughtful’s rear talon edged backwards, before he stood back up, his face slightly flushed. He cursed his stupid, indecisive mind. What kind of supportive dragon doubts someone the first chance they get? _Idiot..!_

The thin, elegant hybrid got up as well and met his eyes. “I… shouldn’t have let my wings lock up. I can’t stagnate any more -I need to give my blue however possible. Only then, will my debt be paid.” Her wings shifted nervously, and her body language certainly spoke discomfort. However, she had definitely changed. Thoughtful remembered her bravery during the RainWing battle. She had thrown herself in harm’s way _twice_ in the battle, all for Queen Vigilance. Sometime, amidst all of the chaos, she had found it in herself to take action.

 _But… she still blames herself for her father’s death?_ “Whiteout, you don’t _have_ a debt.” He couldn’t help but feel as though he was bashing his head against a brick wall at times. “What happened to your family wasn’t your fault!”

Whiteout’s pale eyes regarded him with hints of frustration. “It is. And I can’t let blackness seep through again.” She turned to Vigilance, who, judging by her expression and claw tapping against the ground, was growing rather impatient. “I’m ready for the sands of time to collect in my eyes.”

The NightWing queen nodded.

Later that evening, Vigilance, perched on a relatively short ledge, called the tribe together for another announcement. Before the battle, Thoughtful often found himself pressed against the scales of multiple dragons squeezing through to get a better view of their ruler, but now, there was ample space for everyone.

He remembered the loss of his parents, and his heart churned with the pain of death’s crushing grip. _Now what?_ he gloomily wondered while the last few dragons assembled. _My sole purpose in life has been to serve my parents. But now… what is my purpose?_

Flashes and images of things he had dreamed about when he was younger streamed through his mind. Starcaller and Nightseer, safe, healthy, and happy in the queen’s palace.

_The queen’s palace…_

“Oh…” he whispered, an epiphany striking him. As the final dragon reached the crowd to listen in on Vigilance, Thoughtful gazed around his tribe-mates. They weren’t perfect, but they were NightWings - a fearsome, respected tribe with wondrous powers. There truly was no other tribe quite like them. And he knew exactly what his parents would want him to do from here.

 _I will serve my tribe the best I can,_ he decided. _That is what I will live for._

But then, the queen motioned for Whiteout to pad up next to her.

 _Um… that includes her._ But the truth already began seeping through his head before the queen even began speaking.

“Attention, everyone,” she said, radiating the same dignity as she always did in situations like these. “As you may know, my most trusted seer—Allknowing—was murdered before the battle with the RainWings. We then tragically lost a very large part of our tribe. I would like to deeply apologize for this. I was too intent on finding a new home for my tribe that I wasn’t willing to restrain my ambition when I needed to. I am sure many loved ones would still be here if I had ceased the fighting sooner-“ Her eyes flicked towards Thoughtful guiltily. “And for that, I am greatly sorry. I will do everything in my power to make amends for this.”

The crowd of dragons shifted slightly. Murmurs were exchanged, grief and uncertainty laced among them. One dragon was sobbing against the shoulder of another, who patted her back and rested his head against hers. Another was gazing up judgmentally at the queen, visibly—and justifiably—angry.

The queen herself didn’t appear to be in much better spirits. Burning regret shown through her wide eyes, as if she was still processing the amount of dragons lost during the battle. It was apparent in her words that she truly felt regret for her arrogance. Thoughtful hoped the tribe would forgive her.

“Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge someone,” said Vigilance. “Someone who is largely the reason we remain. He knew what to do in the heat of battle even when I didn’t, and led a retreat even when I opposed it. And as a result, he saved our tribe. Or, what’s left of it. I would like to thank Thoughtful.”

The dragons around him respectfully applauded. “Thank you all,” he said a little shyly. _But you’re all about to see the reason why I was prepared to do that._

After the dragons around him finished clapping, the queen continued. “The first step in rebuilding is electing a new primary seer. The one I have chosen has risked her life for me multiple times during the battle.”

Thoughtful could already hear anxious whispers as talons were pointed in Whiteout’s direction. He gulped, hoping to drown out his worry. Hopefully the reaction would be fine. After all, Arctic the IceWing was once a part of the NightWing royals. Surely they would be accepting of this?

 _You’re forgetting one thing, Thoughtful,_ a corner of his mind whispered. _Arctic was a traitor to the NightWings!_

“Whiteout will be my new primary seer. She will lead us towards our new home.”

At first, there was nothing. Just a quiet, heart-twisting, suffocating silence as the night dragons surrounding him processed what the queen had just said.

Then, the tribe broke into outrage.

Most of them were shouting over each other enough to make most of their words unintelligible. Disgust and frustration were painted—and then practically smeared—across nearly all of their faces. Thoughtful’s stomach twisted when he managed to overhear one dragon yelling: “How could you pick the offspring of a disgusting traitor over anyone else?!”

Thoughtful couldn’t help but let his face contort into pure regret and terror, like the entire continent had just been crushed by giant talons, except those talons were his own. Was it a bit premature to elect Whiteout? Perhaps. To be honest, it was hard to tell right from wrong by now - everything was moving so quickly.

_Whiteout!_

After feeling a slight twinge of hesitation, out of fear to see Whiteout’s face, his eyes locked onto Whiteout’s small shape. She looked almost as horrified as he felt, her eyes wide. However, something interesting was that she hadn’t crumpled like she often did. She hadn’t even shied her eyes away from the upset crowd. She stood tall, taking the full brunt of their anger.

_Wow… I think she really has changed._

When a stone was flung in her direction, the queen yelled: “Enough!!” Thankfully, the tribe seemed to quell despite their newfound anger, though a few still whispered furiously to each other. “I will not tolerate my primary seer being harmed,” the queen said, taking a step in front of Whiteout. “I forbid it.”

Only a few more grumbles followed, but this was not the way Thoughtful hoped Whiteout’s introduction as primary seer would go. He hoped, at the very least, most would be indifferent about it. All that mattered was that they accepted Whiteout enough to hopefully help her realize that she was worth something. Even if she had worked up the will to devote herself to the NightWings, he could plainly tell that she still loathed herself. Perhaps if the tribe had welcomed her with open arms, she would be well on her way to forgiving herself.

However, this couldn’t have gone any worse.

Once the tribe had calmed down, the queen wanted Whiteout to find where they would go next. It took some concentration from the hybrid, but after a few moments, she managed a rather cryptic message:

_Tomorrow is above wings and above kings - above everything._

Thoughtful, who the queen allowed to decode the messages (it was a huge honor), guessed that she was speaking about a place apart from Pyrrhia. From his interpretation, there was possibly an island north of the continent. The NightWings’ new home could be destined on that island. The queen was unsure at first, but she figured that with how far they had come already, and with how much they had lost, it was worth a shot. Attempting to claim any other tribes’ territory would be unwise, and if they could find a place where they’d remain unseen, that would be even better.

That morning, the queen led the tribe away from the camp they had set up near Jade Mountain, this time flying north instead of east. Vigilance didn’t enjoy flying during the day; she feared of exposing the tribe, so she stopped after roughly an hour to rest for the remainder of the day. Hopefully they had put enough distance between them and the RainWings to keep them safe for as long as they needed to.

Soon, day began turning to dusk, and when the sun had almost been swallowed by the horizon, they resumed their flight north. They very quickly reached the Claws of the Clouds Mountains and started following them, hoping to bypass the Sky Kingdom. Thoughtful flew close to Whiteout, who flew a few tail-lengths away from the queen. He hoped they wouldn’t encounter any trouble during the flight.

Unfortunately, when the moons were a quarter of the way through the sky, he overheard some angry mutters from close behind. A few moments later, he heard a very obviously loud: “Man, why are we letting a half-blood lead us?”

Feeling his heart thump angrily against his chest, Thoughtful turned his head and said: “Could you repeat that?” to whoever was back there.

“I said, why in the name of this continent are we allowing a traitorous half-blood to lead out tribe?!”

The lead naysayer was a NightWing with extremely dark scales. While other dragons had hints of colors such as blue or green in their scales, his entire body was mostly colorless, save for his dark green eyes.

About ten dragons were behind him as well, shouting their anger towards the queen’s new seer. A few more dragons were beginning to join in, slowly but surely.

Thoughtful’s lips curled in anger as he asked: “And what makes you think Whiteout is a traitor?”

“How can you not tell that this is all a ploy? First, Allknowing dies, and then the queen is left to make the mistake of pitting us against the RainWings. Once that half-breed ‘saves’ her, she’s suddenly filled with so much gratitude and trust that, just like that, she becomes the next top seer! Obviously, she killed Allknowing herself just to control the tribe.” The dragon had a knowing smirk that carried a twinge of disgust, and Thoughtful didn’t think it was aimed at only the hybrid.

Speaking of which, he saw Whiteout carefully observing them while trying to focus on flying. She appeared to be holding back a lot of feelings.

“Those are disgusting lies,” retorted Thoughtful. “Why would she even do any of this?”

“Extracting revenge against the tribe. She _is_ part IceWing.”

“Okay, but then why did she go through the trouble of saving the queen?”

“Did you not hear what I said earlier? She wants to gain our trust, lull us into a false sense of security, and _then_ strike.”

“I know those are lies.” Well, Thoughtful hoped they were. He still couldn’t shake the small part of his mind that thought otherwise. But… in his heart, he was almost completely sure Whiteout was innocent. “You haven’t met her. You don’t know what she’s like.”

“And are you a mindreader? If not, you’ll need to give me a better reason to believe you. Dragons like Allknowing aren’t just sliced out of nowhere.” Victory sparkled in his eyes, and he grinned. It almost disturbed Thoughtful. His points _were_ relatively believable, even if they were impossible to believe given what he had known. _Or assumed,_ he thought with a gulp.

“I’m a mindreader,” a new voice called. Thoughtful’s head jolted in its direction, and he saw Listener padding her way through the cloud of night dragons. “Stoneclaw, stop this! This isn’t right and isn’t true.”

Stoneclaw frowned. “ _What?_ ” he spat. “You of all dragons want me to stop?” His wingbeats became faster and snappier.

“Yes.” When silence remained between them for a few long, unsettling moments, she turned her head away, and Thoughtful could’ve sworn her expression was… _remorseful._

_She probably knows him. Or, he knows her. Either way, something’s going on._

_But surely Listener wouldn’t lie to me about Whiteout, right?_ He remembered what she told him about her innocence. It was cryptic and vague, which he was pretty used to by now. But… would she lie to him?

By now, it was difficult to know who to trust.

“You should stop, too,” Whiteout said from behind him. She still wore the stone-cold mask she had adopted last night. Her wingbeats were mostly steady, but occasionally a wing twitched or stuttered.

“I want to protect you, Whiteout,” Thoughtful replied simply. “These dragons want to hurt you.”

“Maybe that’s part of giving my blue, then… Maybe I deserve this.”

That caught him off-guard. He knew she still blamed herself for what happened with her father, but now she believed she _deserved_ the harassment?

“You don’t, Whiteout!” he tried to tell her, but it was too late. She had already turned away and clearly wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation.

Even if she was motivated to do great things now, she seemed very much at war with herself. The amount of self-loathing she held inside was more than Thoughtful had seen from any dragon he’d ever met. And he couldn’t stop thinking about that.

By the time the NightWing tribe managed to reach their destination, it was already midday. In order to save time, Queen Vigilance had opted against taking a break at sunrise, so when Thoughtful finally made it to the shore Whiteout’s prophecy spoke of, he was dripping with exhaustion, both from the flight and the scandalous rumors about the strange blue hybrid.

The tribe had flown to the northwest section of the continent, directly above the MudWing queen, Queen Carmine’s palace. The beach looked spectacular in the daylight, with smooth, deep blue water and an assortment of palm trees. From one side of the horizon to the other, the beach seemed to stretch on and on. However, the intense heat combined with the need to stay hidden forced the tribe in the cluster of plants and bushes before the beach.

As soon as he could, Thoughtful dragged himself off to a comfortable-looking spot laced with soft moss to get some rest. Thoughts dancing in his head made that rather difficult, though.

The majority of the tribe seemed to believe that Whiteout was not to be trusted, judging by the sheer amount of outrage heard during Whiteout’s selection. If Thoughtful was being honest with himself, he might’ve believed Stoneclaw’s story as well. It was relatively sound, except for the fact that Whiteout was nothing like the monster Stoneclaw described. She seemed to be a complete pacifist, and Thoughtful hadn’t sensed an ounce of maliciousness from her. Plus, Listener apparently believed she was innocent too.

That was all he had to go off of, though. There was still a slight twinge in the back of his mind casting doubts throughout his head, and he understood why. If Whiteout hadn’t killed Allknowing, who did? And why?

 _Maybe it was a RainWing,_ he guessed, remembering the terror of their deadly, gaping jaws. _It would make sense. After all, they already knew we were near the rainforest before we attacked. Perhaps that was their way of hindering us._

 _Or perhaps someone hates Whiteout so much that they killed Allknowing to frame her…_ He considered that possibility for a moment, but quickly dismissed it. No sane dragon would go to _those_ lengths just to harm an IceWing. There were simpler methods of taking out the hybrid… methods that made him very uncomfortable thinking about.

He had to admit that he really did like Whiteout. He liked how she was so weird, yet so dazzlingly bright ( _was_ being the operative word). He liked how soothingly gentle she was when she comforted him about the loss of his parents. She was a beautiful soul.

And yet, even though it pained him to see her treated as badly as she had been, he was so happy to be there for her. Her comforting him was great, but _him_ comforting _her_ was gratifying in a way he had never really felt before.

No matter what happened, he wanted to be there to help her always.

As he continued to let thoughts about Whiteout drift through his mind, he eventually managed to relax enough to slip into the warm cascade of sleep.

Thoughtful eased back awake to the black of the night when he heard shouts nearby. He blinked the sleep away from his eyes and sat up. Two dragons were arguing about something. It was difficult to understand what they were saying from the distance he was at, but he felt curious, so he quietly edged away from where he had rested.

The sounds seemed to be coming left from his resting spot. Tucking his wings in close, he attempted to creep closer, but each footstep felt like a test he was one imbalance away from failing. If he shifted his weight even slightly incorrectly, he could possibly alert the arguing dragons of where he was.

Eventually, he was able to get close enough to make out what the dragons were saying. “This is such a dangerous game to be playing, and I’m frankly ashamed you’ve gone this far.” the female voice said.

The male voice sounded exasperated. “Why’re you ashamed?! I know for a fact that hybrid is trouble! It’s only a matter of time before she finishes what her brother started, and I need to save the tribe now!”

 _He must be talking about Whiteout,_ Thoughtful realized with a shiver.

“That doesn’t justify what you did!! How could you kill Allknowing and continue to slander Whiteout?!”

 _What?!_ Someone _did_ frame Whiteout! Thoughtful had mostly believed it was the work of a RainWing, but… this changed everything.

“This is for the good of the tribe and you know it. What about those things you said about her a couple nights ago? Were those rumors as well?” Through the leaves, Thoughtful could see the silhouette of the male dragon, lit by what appeared to be a campfire, waving his talons frantically.

“Look… I wasn’t myself. I was frustrated, and angry, and _jealous_ … I shouldn’t have said what I said. Yes, they were all lies.”

_That voice sounds… no, it can’t…_

Feeling his insides turn to stone, Thoughtful threw caution to the wind and brushed through the leaves hiding the two arguing dragons. When he stepped through, he found a campfire illuminating two wide-eyed dragons staring right at him. His own eyes seemed to widen just as much.

One of them was Listener. The other was Stoneclaw.

“L-Listener…” His voice was almost completely drenched with pain. “What rumors?”

When Listener finally managed to move again, shame was the first thing that inflicted her expression. “I…” She sighed, before managing: “Remember the first night we spent outside the Night Kingdom?”

“Yes…”

“And I was kind of visibly upset by your little crush on Whiteout, because of my stupid crush on you.”

“I don’t like where this is going.” This couldn’t be happening right now.

The light of the fire danced across Listener’s eyes. “I… kind of let my jealousy get the best of me. I came to my friends and just sort of… vented. And I couldn’t help myself in saying things about Whiteout that weren’t true. I was too angry and frustrated with how things were going. It didn’t feel fair to me - she was the _last_ dragon I expected you to choose over me. She was weird, and no one really liked her, and I CAN’T HAVE _ANYONE_ TO LOVE ME, BUT SOME WEIRD HYBRID DOES?!!?” She was practically screaming by now. When she realized this, she paused, calmed down, and continued. “So I lied about Whiteout. I told them of awful things she had ‘done’ in order to… I don’t even know what I was trying to accomplish - I was just angry.”

Meanwhile, Thoughtful felt like his heart was crumbling. He _trusted_ her. He even considered her a _good_ friend, and yet she did _this?!_

“I can hear what you’re thinking, and I honestly agree,” she said quickly. “It was a horrible thing to do. After we took that walk to the lake together, I realized that my hopes of… of _us_ weren’t meant to be. I needed to let go. And I did, but the damage had already been done.” She stared intensely into Thoughtful’s eyes, desperation shining through. “Please, I’ll do anything to make amends for what I have done.”

He shook his head in disbelief, touching his temples. How? How could things have gotten this bad?!

He needed to know. He needed to know what Listener said.

“…What did you tell them?” he whispered furiously.

“I-“ She took a breath. “I… don’t even think I could say it. It… what I said involved… _murder_ …”

Thoughtful was disgusted.

If his parents were here now, they would probably tell him to accept what happened and do whatever possible to reverse this mess. That was, if they weren’t under the belief of Whiteout’s guilt either. They would tell him to have amnesty and forgive his friend. They would tell him to be forgiving and be _good._

Forget that. What Listener was saying was unacceptable.

“What… is _WRONG_ WITH YOU?!” Thoughtful roared, causing Listener to stumble backwards. “How could you SAY something like that?!” Pure fury pumped through his veins. Why were all good things being taken away from him? First he loses his home, then his parents, and now his only friend aside from Whiteout tried to betray him?

“Hey, she only did what was necessary,” Stoneclaw reasoned. Reasoned? That was hardly the appropriate word. There was NOTHING _reasonable_ about this whatsoever. “Whiteout is probably a threat anyway. It’s better we eliminate her now.”

“Have you even MET her?!” Somehow being half IceWing and brother to an… admittedly extremely dangerous dragon, automatically meant you were bad too. _Even though that clearly wasn’t the case, but hey, who cares? She’s just another IceWing, right? Gotta get rid of her!_ “She’s NOTHING like her family. She only wants good for our tribe, and yet you’re just gonna try and frame her like this because she’s part IceWing?”

“Well… I mean-“

“And speaking of which, why did you even kill Allknowing?” He took an agitated step towards Allknowing’s murderer. “You could’ve killed Whiteout in her sleep, right? Why didn’t you do that? TELL ME WHY!”

“Scum IceWings deserve the worst humiliation! They murdered my family, and yet _our queen_ thinks it’s _acceptable_ to let one of them in our tribe!” Stoneclaw took a snarling breath. “Killing her would be too easy. I wanted her to _suffer._ I wanted everyone to hate and eventually torture her so much that she would’ve accepted death with glee!”

This dragon was absolutely insane. To think he would put the tribe in jeopardy… all because he wanted the satisfaction of the most extreme revenge possible?!  
“You’re a monster,” Thoughtful said quietly. “ _You’re_ the scum. _You’re_ the danger to our tribe. _You_ deserve to die.”

Listener started forward. “Thoughtful…”

“No!” he yelled. “You’ve caused enough damage! Leave me alone!”

“All I’ve wanted to do is make amends ever since I made that mistake! I just want to fix things! I don’t want Whiteout to suffer or even lose her position as primary seer, because she truly doesn’t deserve any harm!”

“Oh, and you’re just _now_ coming to that conclusion?” Thoughtful spat. “It’s too late, Listener!”

“He’s right,” Stoneclaw said smugly. “Even when she tried to deny her information to the others, it was to no avail. I made sure of that. And I’ll gladly continue. It’s inexcusable that the queen would let an IceWing not only live among us after what that traitor Arctic did, but let her _lead her tribe_.” He allowed himself a small chuckle. “You wanna know why everyone believes me? Because I’m right. Because _I_ know what’s best for the tribe, and it absolutely isn’t a dangerous brethren of Darkstalker. Soon enough the tribe will have her snuffed out, one way or another.”

 _No._ For a moment, all Thoughtful could do was stand still, staring at the ground, smoldering with rage. _I need to take him to the queen. He’s a liability and he’s insane. And if I don’t… I could lose the one good thing left in my life._

Images of Whiteout pinned under Stoneclaw’s talons, her scales being ruthlessly lacerated, appeared in his mind.

_I have to fight him._

Taking a deep breath, he looked up and glared at Stoneclaw, before lunging at him. As he went down, he dug his knee into the disgusting dragon’s stomach. Stoneclaw let out a yell of pain, before his expression hardened and he slashed the chest wound Thoughtful had sustained from the RainWing battle.

“Dragons like you are gonna be the end of our tribe!” Stoneclaw spat, pushing Thoughtful back into the campfire. He could hardly muster the strength to yell in pain, for pain was all he could feel. His chest wound was bleeding again, and it hurt like needles. Still, it didn’t hurt quite as much as the pain of learning what Listener had done.

Thoughtful scrabbled his way out of the fire. Thankfully, his back was only a little singed. Unthankfully, Stoneclaw was about to land another blow on him.

Clutching his wound, he summoned all of the energy he could muster to roll out of the way of a heavy blow. But then, Stoneclaw took another lunging score across Thoughtful’s chest, sending vibrant icy spikes of pain throughout his body.

Everything hurt. His talons almost felt as if they were going numb, and he was beginning to feel dizzy. “L-Listener…” he moaned as black dots danced around his vision. “Please… please help.”

Stoneclaw kneeled down and let his talon drift menacingly towards Thoughtful’s neck. “End of the line, traitor,” he whispered, touching it to his neck, slowly adding pressure.

So this was the NightWing tribe. Dragons who lie just to spite others they don’t like. Dragons who try to frame those they don’t understand. And dragons that blindly follow the hate-fueled lies because they don’t know any better, and don’t care to know any better.

_I can’t believe this…_

But then, the pressure was removed from his neck. He wasn’t pinned down. And Listener was fighting back.

“Thoughtful,” she grunted, struggling with Allknowing’s murderer. “W-wrap your wound…”

When Thoughtful tried to sit up, the pain was immense, in his chest, at least. He was already losing feeling in his talons, and his head was starting to feel light. However, he saw before him a large leaf Listener had left him, like the one from after the RainWing battle.

Gritting his teeth, he carefully wrapped the leaf around his chest wound. It didn’t stop the bleeding completely, but it stopped most of it. Despite this, he already felt incredibly weak, but Listener had her back up against a tree, and was about to be done in by Stoneclaw.

“N-no!” Thoughtful used every ounce of willpower he had to force himself off the ground and tackle Stoneclaw. He landed on the ground facing down, which sent extra needles of pain through him due to the wound, but he staggered back up anyway.

Unfortunately, Stoneclaw got up with little to no trouble, though he did look a bit bruised.

There probably wouldn’t be a better chance to strike than now. Thoughtful was getting weaker by the second, and he knew he needed to finish things now. If he stalled for too long… he might just collapse right in front of the traitor. But even if he did strike now… he was too weak. He needed help.

He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. It was now or never. He threw all caution to the wind and came towards Stoneclaw again, almost blindly slashing at him. Most of them missed, until eventually Allknowing’s murderer caught them.

“Have fun not being alive, traitor!” he sneered.

“You’re the traitor…” muttered Thoughtful, before he yelled: “Listener, now!”

Stoneclaw turned around, only to have his head severely bashed with a rock by the mindreader. The blow was hard enough to make him collapse. Thoughtful breathed a sigh of relief.

He was knocked out, but not dead. A large patch of blood trickled from his forehead. What was left of the campfire flickered pitifully, painting their surroundings a darker orange, almost red.

When Thoughtful’s feeling returned, he took a deep breath and said: “Thank you, Listener.”

“It was the least I could do,” she replied solemnly. “I don’t know if the bad I’ve done can be undone, though. And I’m so sorry, I really am…”

“Yeah… you should be.” He chuckled, before clutching his chest in pain. He still didn’t quite how he felt about her spreading those rumors… but most of him felt like staying away from the mindreader after this. His trust was spent.

“I understand,” she said softly. Her reading his mind still made him uncomfortable, but at least he didn’t have to talk about his trust to her face now. A shivering moment passed, and she looked closer at his wound. Concern bloomed in her expression. “You should probably get that checked out-“

“No,” he cut her off. “Not until Stoneclaw is arrested.”

With Thoughtful on one side and Listener on the other, Stoneclaw was dragged, unconscious, away from the campfire. They weren’t sure where Queen Vigilance was at first, but after a long, awkward period of limping around and dragging a knocked out NightWing through the plant-life, they eventually found the queen on the beach, staring at the night sky and black-blue water towards what was hopefully where their new home would be.

Slogging his talons through the sand, Thoughtful said: “Q-Queen Vigilance…” He took a tired breath. He felt drained not only physically, but emotionally as well. It was an almost nauseating feeling, but he kept it down for the sake of putting an end to this madness. “Your Majesty, I… I found Allknowing’s murderer.”

She turned, visibly shocked. “You did?” She examined the dragon, and asked: “Is he dead?” When Thoughtful and Listener both shook their heads, she walked towards the ocean and supped some water in her talons. When she flew back, she splashed it on Stoneclaw’s face.

The water woke him up, and he coughed. “What’s this all about…?”

“My associates say you were the one who killed Allknowing. Is this true?” Her composure had improved since the RainWing battle. The majestic aura she possessed when she first led the tribe out of the Night Kingdom had returned, giving new strength to her presence.

However, Stoneclaw’s face only expressed confusion. “W-what? No… I didn’t. Why am I even here? What happened…?”

 _Liar!_ Thoughtful shouted internally. _You disgusting, wretched liar!!_

Vigilance’s gaze shifted towards Thoughtful and Listener. “Do you have any evidence for what happened?”

Thoughtful immediately said: “He told me! Right to my face!” Rage still boiled through him, and it took a noticeable amount of restraint to stop himself from attacking Stoneclaw. “Isn’t that right?”

Stoneclaw simply said innocently: “No…”

“Is that all?” asked the queen. “Because most other NightWings have been telling me that Whiteout did it.”

 _No… no, no, no, NO. This is not happening. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING._ After his flurry of desperate thoughts, all he could muster was a defeated expression and the words: “That’s all…”

Vigilance stared at Thoughtful wonderingly. “I don’t have any evidence to prove Whiteout’s guilt, other than the rather large amount of dragons telling me she did it. Meanwhile, you two are the first dragons to accuse someone else.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m sorry, Thoughtful. I trust you, but not enough to punish a dragon for something he didn’t do. Meanwhile, almost none of my royal officers know what to think. However, I’m beginning to question whether allowing Whiteout to lead the tribe was a good idea or not…” She glanced at the sea ominously, before finishing: “You two are dismissed, after you let this dragon go.”

Feeling as though this day couldn’t get worse, Thoughtful loosened his grip on Stoneclaw and muttered: “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Wait!” Listener cried. “Do you not see Thoughtful’s injury? He needs medical help! Stoneclaw was the one who injured him!”

“And Stoneclaw looks hurt as well,” she retorted. “All I know is that these two dragons, and maybe you as well, were involved in a fight. I can’t prove anything else. And I’m not going to make an exception for him.”

“Why not?! He saved your tribe.” Listener looked extremely frustrated, but Thoughtful only shook his head. It was perfectly obvious why the queen didn’t trust him enough for this. The answer was right in front of him.

_I can’t believe Stoneclaw is getting away with this…_

The queen continued: “I will wait until an answer is found as to what happened to Allknowing before I decide any punishments. It doesn’t seem like an answer will be found anytime soon, though… and though I don’t condone violence between our own, I do think this is a special case. If we have reason to believe one side of this story over the other, appropriate action will be taken. Until then, I have my eye on you, Thoughtful.”

“I understand, Your Majesty.” He felt embarrassed beyond belief, and as he looked into Stoneclaw’s eyes, he could’ve sworn he saw a hint of triumph and glee. “Will you keep an eye on Stoneclaw as well, though?”

“I will consider it.”

As Thoughtful padded back towards the forest, he was downcast. There were several dragons that believed Stoneclaw’s lies - likely the majority of the tribe. He was winning, and there wasn’t a clear answer to how his guilt would be proven just yet. But with souls as broken and disgusting as his in the tribe, with a complete lack of an ability to see past one’s heritage and accept a dragon for who they really were, it made Thoughtful wonder something:  
 _Is this tribe really worth serving?_


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the wait! I kinda got some horrible writer's block and also started making music. ALSO high school started and that's been taking a lot of my time. I'd like for that not to happen again, but knowing me, it probably will. I actually started working on this over Christmas break, though whether or not the break is the REASON I managed to pull this off, I don't really know.  
> I made this for when I happen to sorta die like that again. If you ever need an update on things, chances are you can find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28200492/chapters/69104067
> 
> Thank you for the support and patience! Enjoy the newest chapter of my weird story.

The shore glistened with burning hot sand as NightWings prepared themselves for a long flight. The ocean whispered scents of salt, and the sun’s great light formed sparkles on the water.

Thoughtful, crouched near Listener and Whiteout, was not ready to fly.

“Were you out of your mind?” he hissed at Listener, seething with anxious frustration. It still felt almost impossible to get over what she’d done. “How could you even _think_ to spread lies _that_ serious about Whiteout?”

“I’m sorry, Thoughtful- I really am!” Her eyes flicked with shame and discomfort. At least, as a mindreader, she clearly felt Thoughtful’s distress. “I won’t try for even a second to justify what I did. I can’t even say I know for sure what came over me. I was just… _jealous_! And…” She sighed, looking exasperated.

‘Jealousy’ was no excuse. Frankly, it was hard for him to tell whether or not she was actually sorry. His head began to ache with anger.

 _Maybe it’s for the better that I never made friends when I was younger,_ he bitterly remarked. _If most dragons are this twisted, their morals_ this _out of line, I think I’d rather be isolated!_

 _“_ Can you please just stop?” Listener cried, interrupting his thoughts. “I get it! I messed up! But there surely has to be something we can do to fix all of this! Right??” She glanced at Whiteout, as if she expected her to come up with an answer. The hybrid wore an expression of helplessness, signaling to Thoughtful that she was about as stumped as the rest of them.

“Listener, there is no going back from this,” he angrily asserted. “You planted the seeds for Stoneclaw’s plan. While he may hate IceWings, guess what? My parents did too! But you spreading the lies you did—combined with all of the craziness surrounding Darkstalker and his family—was what enabled Stoneclaw to make our situation as bad as it is. And now…” He looked at Whiteout’s pondering eyes, her brow furrowed with contemplation. How was she going to live safely with the NightWings? Every day after they settled—and perhaps even before—angry, vengeful NightWings would surely do whatever they could to hurt her. With Stoneclaw continuing to build his narrative of a manipulative, sick, malicious Whiteout to the NightWing tribe, she would never be safe. For even a chance of safety, she would likely require guards, or some kind of royal intervention. But even then, she’d have to live life as a hated member of a tribe that would never accept her. Constantly on edge, constantly in danger. It’s no way to live. But it would be her entire life, forever until she died, constantly in danger…

Listener gently set a talon on his shoulder. “Thoughtful, you’re panicking. Please just-“

“Don’t touch me!!” he snapped, knocking her talon off. Breathing quickly, his heart pounded with tenseness, and his face felt like it was burning. Whiteout took his talon in hers, and murmured: “Please listen to her thoughts.”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and buried his face in his talons, feeling like he was about to cry. “How… are we supposed to do anything now…?” he said miserably. Whiteout pulled him into a soft but reassuring hug. It almost felt wrong for her to be comforting him, since she was the one in danger. But he tried to relax anyway.

“Perhaps eyes are for us to begin with,” Whiteout suggested.

“Eyes?” Listener asked.

“She probably means guards,” Thoughtful mumbled, lifting his head off of Whiteout’s shoulder. “Maybe. I honestly don’t even know anymore…”

“That’s not a bad idea, though,” said Listener, gazing at the bright sandy landscape before them. “I mean, if we have eyewitnesses that the queen trusts monitoring Whiteout-“

“It won’t make up for all of the time she _hasn’t_ been monitored, though,” Thoughtful reminded. “Allknowing is still dead. There’s no way for us to prove or disprove who killed her now.”

“Well, what if we get guards to keep an eye on _Stoneclaw_?”

Thoughtful considered this. It could work, but only if Stoneclaw actually did something serious again. Which, he found the chance of it rather low for a normal dragon. However, he remembered how Stoneclaw gloated at him during their fight, and his reason for the extreme lengths he went to for the sake of Whiteout’s defamation:

 _Killing her would be too easy. I wanted her to_ suffer _. I wanted everyone to hate and eventually torture her so much that she would’ve accepted death with glee!_

“This could work,” he admitted. “But even considering Stoneclaw’s obsession with making Whiteout’s life horrible, I still think we’d have to be really lucky.” He squinted through the sunlight, trying to pick out Stoneclaw. The cunning NightWing had bandages wrapped around his head from the earlier fight. He touched his talon to the cloth wrapped around his own neck. Though it wouldn’t prevent him from flying, it still hurt like needles.

“What else could be done further up the crystal road?” asked Whiteout.

Thoughtful stared blankly at the ground. “I don’t really know… I think this is probably the most that could be done.”

“You could always _leave_ ,” Listener suggested. “Leave the tribe, and take Whiteout with you.”

 _L-leave...?_ “No-“ Thoughtful responded immediately. “No, I can’t. My parents, they- they died for the tribe. And- look, I know things look really bad right now, but this… this is Stoneclaw’s fault! He’s the problem.” Listener looked skeptical, her eyes almost squinting. “I want to serve this tribe the best way I can,” he continued, “and doing so means eliminating menaces like him.”

Listener stared quizzically at him. “But what was all of that fuss about Whiteout for, then?”

Thoughtful exhaled in frustration. She didn’t understand. Well, maybe he didn’t even understand. But that wasn’t the point. The entire point of his life was to do whatever he could for the betterment of his tribe. That’s the way his parents would’ve wanted him to live. He couldn’t betray that.

“We… we need to get going,” he finally said. “I think the tribe is about to take flight.”

“W-what if Whiteout just left by herself? Then you could serve the tribe, while she could be safe, _away_ from the tribe.”

“Listener, why don’t _you_ leave?”

“Enough!” Whiteout cried. “Please, she _is_ blue. And-“ She turned to Listener, and after hesitating, said: “I don’t want to go to Pyrrhia without the endless scrolls.”

Listener gave both of them an incredulous look, before shaking her head. Before she could make a remark, Thoughtful added: “Don’t forget how integral she is to the tribe relocating.”

“Whatever,” she conceded. “It’s your choice…” With that, she flew towards the gathering tribe of night dragons preparing to fly.

Once the mindreader had left, a tsunami of doubt crashed within Thoughtful’s head. Was this really the right thing to do? Was serving the NightWings really more important to him than protecting Whiteout? He bit a talon, feeling miles from reaching an answer. The NightWings were a powerful tribe with a mystical history, while Whiteout was… just a hybrid. A hybrid… with an unprecedented view of the world and a beautiful mind.

 _What am I doing…?_ he worried. _What was all of that anxiety I was feeling earlier?_ Shaking his head, he covered his eyes with a talon, rubbing his temples.

“Thoughtful? The night turns to day soon…”

Swallowing, his eyes met Whiteout’s. Why couldn’t things just be easier? Because for all of the history the NightWing tribe had, he’d seen what it could do. Maybe not all NightWings were bad (in fact, most probably weren’t), but with dragons like Stoneclaw turning them against him… he didn’t even know what to think. Whether to blame them for falling for his ruse or understand the difficult situation they needed to navigate. And then there was the war…

“Relax, please.”

Thoughtful harshly exhaled, his stress creeping closer. “I-I-I’m sorry…” Pressing his front talons into the lush emerald grass, he slowly rose and padded near the queen. First he needed to find some sort of solace for Whiteout. Steely, unfriendly guards might not be his first idea of _solace_ , but it was about as close as he could reasonably get.

Just before he was about to call the queen’s name, though, he saw a swift movement of black, which ran straight into Whiteout.

“Whiteou-“ he started, before staring in astonishment. A NightWing had tackled her, one he’d never seen before, but Whiteout was managing to lock it in place with her talons, preventing it from harming her.

_Wow…_

But then, he heard a familiar authoritative voice say: “Break it up!” and just a moment later, a pair of Vigilance’s officers dragged them away from each other.

“If you’re not interested in finding a new home, by all means continue fighting,” said the queen. Interestingly, though, the guards promptly released both the NightWing and Whiteout. While he was quite thankful that no punishment had come to the hybrid, he was also curious as to why no punishment had come to the NightWing. He very distinctly remembered Vigilance forbidding anyone causing harm to her.

_I’ve got a bad feeling about this…_

Just before the tribe was about to set out, Thoughtful decided to approach the queen about protection. When the NightWing queen saw him, her face slightly contorted into annoyance. _Obviously she’s tired of this,_ he noted. It made him hate Stoneclaw even more for starting all of this.

 _Or Listener._ Though he wasn’t even sure about that, though.

“Yes, Thoughtful?” the queen replied coldly, a hint of exhaustion apparent in her tone.

“I think you should assign guards to Whiteout. And also maybe Stoneclaw. Because then, you’ll actually know what’s happening, and a situation like last night won’t happen again. And also-“

“I’ll consider it, Thoughtful. We need to leave now, though.” She made haste in turning her back to him and hovering above the tribe, her large starry wings causing tremors in the very air. It seemed obvious to him that she did not want to spend any more time thinking about this situation before she brought the night dragons to a new home.

Turning to Whiteout, who’d been trailing behind him, Thoughtful reported: “She might give us guards. I think we’d be lucky if it’s before we reach our new home, though.”

“Thoughtful please, you’re letting everyone else’s white get to you.”

He looked at her, feeling sorry for himself, then feeling irritated by his self-pity, then feeling a plethora of confusing, mostly negative emotions. Most of all, he felt torn.

“I’m sorry…” was all he could muster. He hated this feeling of confusion and just wished he could figure out what to do and stick to it. On one hand, it felt impossible to place Whiteout above his tribe. Yet at the same time, it felt as if that was all part of his heart wanted to do: escape the shrinking confines of his dangerous, unsympathetic tribe, and live in happiness with Whit-

_Stop it. I could never do that. My parents would hate me if they were still here and knew how I felt. Which, I don’t feel that way—the NightWing tribe is too important._

_I just need to focus… but on what?_

The ocean below the NightWings whipped and curled, brief patches of white water spilling onto its surface. The sun had already topped the sky when the tribe set off. A group of albatrosses could be seen hovering near the ocean surface, their iron-colored wings dotting the water with silver.

Whiteout briskly led the locust-like swarm of dragons, her wingbeats strong and confident. Even judging from her outer exterior, she appeared quite determined to do her duty.

Thoughtful, who had been flying behind the queen, asked if he could catch up to Whiteout, hoping not to be disrespectful by overtaking the queen without warning. She permitted it (with a complete lack of enthusiasm and possibly care), and he pressed through the sky until he reached the hybrid.

A moment of silence passed as the two dragons flew above the deep blue splashing below them, before Thoughtful, in an attempt to strike up small talk, asked: “What’s it like leading us? How do you know where… wherever we’re going is? I don’t think any dragon has flown outside the continent and survived before.”

Whiteout took a moment to think, as if to study the question, before admitting: “Like finding obscure ink in a never-ending text.”

“Oh.” This definitely didn’t help quell his anxieties. If anything it only made him feel more jittery. Flying through the vastness of the ocean, a small part of him felt stranded. How long would they fly before finding land? How would they rest if they couldn’t in time? What if the tribe would never find anything?

Perhaps sensing his anxiety, she told him: “Hey, our light won’t flicker out. We can burn for however long is necessary.”

“I’m amazed you can be so optimistic at a time like this,” he remarked. She didn’t reply, but she did manage a smile. Just that made his lungs feel that much lighter. The sunlight glinted off her icy wings, making her appear bright, like her eyes.

_I need to talk to her._

“Whiteout, look… the reason why I’ve been so upset about everything is because I can’t decide what to do, or what to think, really.” A small fragment of his mind felt uncomfortable sharing this, but it was already too late. “I really want to serve my tribe the best I can, but with all of the lies that have been spread about you… most of them will consider me a traitor by helping you. They probably already do…”

Whiteout didn’t interrupt him, but her crystal-clear, understanding gaze gave him all of the comfort he needed.

“But on the other hand…” He sighed, his mouth creasing with anxiety as he forced words out. “I-I really like you- and- I just, I can’t imagine letting them do anything to harm you. You have such a beautiful, interesting mind, and you _are_ beautiful, and you’re why I haven’t lost my mind after all of the horrible things that have happened. I… I love you.”

Panic seized Whiteout’s eyes, and for a moment Thoughtful worried that he’d said the completely wrong things. _I take it back- I TAKE IT BACK, PLEASE DON’T-_

But the panic quickly faded from her expression. “Thoughtful, I- but- isn’t my presence causing those razor claws to dig at you?”

“Absolutely not!” Thoughtful said without thinking. “Yes, it has been difficult trying to keep the tribe from hating you. And yes, that kind of ruins everything because now I have to pick a side. But…” He sighed. “I know it feels wrong to be the reason for this or that. But it’s really not your fault; it’s just how things have come to be.” He paused. The world seemed almost slightly fake, like it could just drop away from him at any moment. Perhaps it was an effect of his rapidly pounding heart.

He rubbed his temples, his face falling slightly. Whiteout took his talon in hers, giving his heart an extra joltof nervousness, and said: “If me leaving is what it takes to cause blue, I will…”

“Please don’t,” he pleaded. “I promise I’ll do what I can to get the NightWings to trust you. I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll figure it out. But if you leave, or moons forbid _die_ …” He didn’t feel the need to spell it out. _My parents are gone. You’re all that’s left._

She nodded in understanding. “Okay. Ease your eyes, please. Try to relax. You still look spiny.”

“Easier said than done… I can’t-“

“Thoughtful, I love you too.”

When the sun had almost descended beyond sight, Queen Vigilance spotted a small, lonely island covered in trees. After confirming with Whiteout that this wasn’t the island the hybrid foresaw, she chose to allow her tribe to rest there.

Shortly after landing, Vigilance summoned Whiteout and Thoughtful. When he padded over to the queen through the thick, leafy environment, two solemn NightWings approached them.

“These two dragons will guard you,” she said. “Two have also been assigned to Stoneclaw.” Her voice was neutral, but her eyes betrayed that. Their subtle twitches and the slight narrowing of her eyebrows made Thoughtful wonder if she was at her wits end. He wouldn’t blame her—everything had begun to fall apart since Arctic died.

“Queen Vigilance, you’re giving them _guards_?!” a voice called from the trees. It didn’t have the manic jeer of Stoneclaw’s, but the words brought about paranoia to Thoughtful’s head nonetheless, and gave Whiteout a disheartened frown.

The queen sighed. “Would you rather them go unsupervised?” she retorted. The voice didn’t respond.

A moment of awkward silence passed. “…Do you have to deal with this often?” Thoughtful asked, hoping to break some tension.

“Go.” she blankly ordered.

Thoughtful and Whiteout had already curled up together to get some rest behind the protection of their guards when the sound of soft footsteps approaching them perked Thoughtful’s ears. He opened his tired eyes and found Listener before them.

“Listener…?”

“Thoughtful, maybe I should stay with you two. I mean, I know this is kind of random, but I really don’t want anything bad happening to either one of you after everything that’s been going on-“

“No.” Thoughtful’s head ached enough. He didn’t want to think about Listener right now. “Listener, I appreciate the concern, but we already have guards.”

“But I’m a mindreader!”

“Thoughtful…” Whiteout touched his shoulder softly. “Please.”

He shook his head. “I just… I can’t think right now. But… but look: we already have a mindreader among our guards, I think.”A male guard with glittering purple eyes turned and looked at Thoughtful as if to confirm this.

 _Wait, mindreaders…_ Suddenly, he had an epiphany. _Why can’t we just have a mindreader search Stoneclaw’s mind? We can find the information we need in his head!_

“I’ve already tried that,” Listener said regretfully. “But… I’ve seen _nothing_ about him killing Allknowing. It’s almost like he has a mental block.”

“She is telling the truth,” the guard confirmed helpfully.

“Are you kidding me??” First of all, how did that even make sense? The only dragons he’d ever heard of being capable of something like that were queens, and even then some past NightWing queens were unable to master it. There were stories of leaderships being sabotaged because the queen couldn’t keep protect her secrets well enough. It surely wasn’t an _easy_ skill to learn.

And second of all… _what?!_

“…I’ve had enough of today,” Thoughtful finally said. “This has been too much. I’m just…” He harshly exhaled with wide, frustrated eyes. “Just… go away, Listener.”

Dismayed, the mindreader obliged.

Though Whiteout didn’t exactly look _happy_ that Listener was gone, she did appear understanding. And though Thoughtful was sorry these choices weren’t easier to navigate, he was immensely thankful for her empathy.

All was still and dark in Thoughtful’s mind. Pressed against Whiteout’s cool, comforting scales, he slept soundly.

Until he heard the sound of a sinister _slit_ , and the sound of blood dripping.

Eyes wide, he jumped awake. “Whiteout?! WHITEOU-“ But she was unharmed, and already awake, and preparing to run, and running off-

And just barely, he made out a shadowy figure escaping into the thickness of the forest. _Stoneclaw. It must be him._

_But… why? Why is he-_

_The guards._

The guards were dead, both of their throats slit. Thoughtful’s heart sank. _No…_

“SOMEONE! THE GUARDS, THEY’RE-“ He broke off, glancing around in desperation. “HELP!!!”

Without anyone around to offer aid to the guards, he remembered Whiteout. Who had just decided to run off after Stoneclaw, a dragon who managed to kill two guards just now.

He was flying before he could even think.

The clusters of trees were very difficult to navigate, as his wings often caught on branches, but it didn’t take very long for him to find Whiteout standing over Stoneclaw in a small clearing. Two other guards (the ones Vigilance must’ve given to Stoneclaw) were also dead. _No… what? How?_

Gasping for breath, not just out of physical exhaustion but a need to figure all of this madness out, Thoughtful swooped down to Whiteout’s aid. However, it appeared she didn’t need any. The hybrid had Stoneclaw pinned down, her usually passive body language nearly unrecognizable save for some small cues. He had never seen her this way.

“You’re stealing the tribe’s light!” she hissed—she _never_ hissed. “You’re taking the blue of innocent hearts!”

“W-what?!” Stoneclaw sounded just as insufferably dishonest as he did when Thoughtful and Listener brought him to Vigilance. “What are you doing?! H-“ He shuddered. “HELP!”

Finally, _finally,_ someone came. It was Vigilance.

“Queen Vigilance!” Thoughtful cried. “Stoneclaw- he, he killed your guards! If Whiteout hadn’t caught him-“

“Silence,” the NightWing queen ordered. “I think it’s quite obvious what has happened here. I’ve seen all I need to see.”

Thoughtful’s breath caught in his throat. It was finally over. Even if it might take a while for the other NightWings to ease up to Whiteout, that would be nothing compared to the challenge he had just overcome. Finally, Stoneclaw—that disgusting, slandering monster that he was ashamed to call a NightWing—would meet his due punishment, and Whiteout could finally live in peace.

“Guards,” the queen said with finality. “Seize Whiteout.”

“What?!” Thoughtful’s heart skipped a beat. Eyes wide, he stared at Whiteout in horror. Nothing was making sense anymore.

But, fast as lightning, a pair of guards tackled Whiteout to the ground, taking tight hold of the hybrid’s forearms.

“Your majesty, Stoneclaw did this!! Whiteout was only-“

“Shut your mouth, Thoughtful!” The queen was yelling in a tone he’d never heard before: the tone of unrelenting hate. “That hybrid was about to kill that innocent dragon. He was injured—he couldn’t even defend himself! And that was after somehow killing four of my guards!”

Thoughtful was about to open your mouth when the queen snarled: “No! That’s enough lying. Both you and Whiteout have nearly caused the whole tribe to lose faith in me. Another word from you and I’ll give you a similar fate to the hybrid!”

He fell silent. His desperate eyes slowly edged their way towards Stoneclaw’s direction. That hint of smugness on his wretched face - he surely wasn’t imagining it. He was almost tempted to attack him, but he held back. Doing that wouldn’t save Whiteout.

By now, a large crowd (close to half the tribe, if not more) had amassed to observe the situation. As Whiteout was stolen away from Thoughtful to meet _some_ kind of horrible fate, they… _cheered._ They warily looked at each other, some murmuring their relief, while others their disgust towards the hybrid. Some made no attempt whatsoever in hiding their joy at the half-IceWing’s apprehending.

Tears streamed down Thoughtful’s gaping face. How could so many dragons see Whiteout as a _monster_? How could she be _this_ unlucky? How could he fail this badly? How could he lose so much?

_How…?_


End file.
